The flavoring industry strikes again! Now you can enjoy the taste of a blueberry muffin with your coffee -- without eating the muffin!
Case in point: Little Red and I stopped at Cumberland Farms, where whe "likes" the coffee. But even Little rEd was shocked (shocked!) to find an airpot full Blueberry Coffee. We thought this a strange and comical idea. Why would anybody want blueberry coffee? we asked ourselves. Back in the car, however, when we realized we were both happily wolfing down a blueberry muffin with our (unflavored) coffee, the idea began to seem a bit less strange -- though it still struck us as odd.
Blueberry coffee?
Hey -- what’s with all these flavored coffees? Where will it all end? Coffee does seem more palatable with cream and sugar added – and it does go pretty well with pastry – almost any kind of pastry, including my personal favorite linzertorte. Or a plain croissant. Now and then I like a mixture of coffee and hot chocolate. But why glunk coffee up with artificial or “natural” flavors – that’s what I can’t figure out.
I mean, why not … pomegranate? What would be wrong with Pomegranate Coffee? Maybe we could just add grenadine syrup to my favorite dark roasted Peet's coffee? Or maybe pomegranate seeds? ... well toasted and then finely ground?
Or -- what about some Egri Bikaver coffee? to which has been added a little Bull's Blood brandy made exclusively from the Hungarian red wine made famous by the Hungarian gauchos?
The truth is, I don't much like even Jameson in my coffee. Or brandy. I like my liquor beside the coffee, please.
But judging by the huge number of people who still drink (a) instant coffee, (b) Chase and Sanborn, Maxwell House, Chock Full O'Nuts, and other common, popular brands made mostly from Bugisu coffee beans (loaded with caffeine) .... it's what? Caffeine that counts.
And because so many of those people drinking Maxwell House love blueberry muffins ... why shouldn't they have blueberry flavored coffee at Cumberland Farms? So you can get the tast eof a blueberry muffin with your coffee without actually eating the muffin, thus cutting down on your caloric total for the day ....
This is either a natural progression of ideas or a natural progression of idiocy. Take your pick.
And pass the pomegranate syrup! Please!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Great Store! ...The Boiceville Market!
The Boiceville Market may not have everything, but it does have a lot of very entertaining foods, including: Sclafani Italian Tomatoes … Jarritos soda – made with sugar, not corn syrup, imported from Mexico … I used to drink Jarritos with the best carne asada tacos I ever ate at El Parian in Los Angeles ... Boar’s Head Cold Cuts … Mother Goose Liverwurst … A good selection of freshly baked crusty French bread and ciabatta … plenty of premium ice cream flavors from Hagen-Dazs, the Adirondack Creamery and others … steak and pork roast and store made sausage … store-baked focacciaa … a large selection of tasty gourmet items, including Hero jam … The new organic Tostitos blue corn chips ... Organic broccoli and organic salad items, and other organic produce … regular produce, for those who don't worry about eating pesticide … and pretty near everything else you would hope to find at an IGA grocery store. What a great store! What a great store! What friendly people! Do I want a Boiceville Market shirt!? Across from the Kingston end of Onteora Central School on Route 28 in Boiceville.
The Boiceville Market! Telephone (845) 657-2695
Pecan, Pepita and Currant Onion Rye Bread
This great bread blends savory and sweet flavors. Makes great toast. Wonderful with butter. Great for cheese sandwiches!
1 tsp. Unrefined Organic Sugar
2 tsps. Active Dry Yeast (preferably organic)
3 –5 Cups Organic White (Bread) flour or King Arthur bread flour
1 Cup Whole Rye Flour
1 tbsp. Caraway seeds
2 tbsps. Poppy Seeds
1 tbsp. Onion Flakes
3 tbsps. Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Pecans
1/2 cup Pepitas
Butter or extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tsps. Salt
This bread will have more flavor if you make the starter the day before: making the bread: in an empty one quart yogurt container or small bowl, dissolve a teaspoon of organic unrefined sugar in two cups of warm water, sprinkle two teaspoons of active dry yeast on the surface of the sugar water, wait until it foams up and then whisk in a cup of rye flour until it is quite smooth. Set the yogurt container in a larger bowl to catch the overflow.
You might like to use a mixture of whole grain rye and white flour for the starter. Let the starter sit overnight or for two nights. It can even go three nights, by which time it will have reached the maximum twanginess, and you might want to add another teaspoon of sugar so the yeast will have something to work on. Suit yourself on how much caraway seed to add. Sometimes I put it in with the starter, sometimes I wait and put it in with the flour, and sometimes I put some in with the starter and then add more with the flour.
When your starter is ready to proceed, set a large skillet over medium high heat, and tumble in a quarter cup each of pecans and pepitas. I broke up the pecans but left the pepitas whole. Toast them, stirring constantly, until they are crispy. Do NOT let them scorch. Just as they get brown, fling in a tablespoon of poppy seeds, a tablespoon of onion flakes, and a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Toasting will enhance the flavor of the nuts and seeds. Remove the skillet from the heat, stirring the while, and fling the nuts and seeds into a large mixing bowl; then add a tablespoon of currants.
Pour the starter over them. Get all the sludge up off the bottom first. During cold weather, you should probably warm the bowl by sloshing hot water around in it (then pouring out the hot water). Add two or three teaspoons of salt and a pinch of sugar. Adding no salt at all means your bread may rise uncontrollably fast. If you feel nervous, sprinkle on a bit more yeast, and let it fizz up, then stir it in.
Add three cups of organic white bread flour or King Arthur Bread Flour. Failing either of those, use the white flour you happen to have on hand. Add enough rye flour to make the total rye flour content one cup.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a stout wooden spoon. This will result in a really sticky paste. Add more white flour little by little until the dough is just barely firm enough to knead but still quite sticky. Turn it out on a well-floured board, and knead until mixed to the same consistency all through, and until it is just barely stiff enough to keep its shape as a ball or half-dome without immediately slumping. If it is too soft, it will stick to your fingers. And then it will begin filching over the lip of the baking pan as it rises -- you would really rather it did not. However, it should be as soft as possible, and not stiff.
Knead until there are no traces of flour on the surface of the dough and the consistency is smooth throughout, folding over and punching in as necessary to achieve this consistency.
Let the dough rise in a warm place. Your oven can be the “warm place” -- just turn it on for a minute or two. However, “hot” is not what you want – the racks should not scorch your fingers.
Butter or oil the bottom and sides of a round 12 inch cake pan. Sprinkle it lightly with corn meal; then to get the sides covered, tap the pan while holding it slanted up on edge, to cover the sides. Put the ball of bread dough in the exact center of the pan. It should slump down somewhat, and should already come close to filling the pan. It will fil the pan and dome up as it rises. Dampen the upper surface with water. You can glaze it with a bit of black malt syrup, if you want a darker brown exterior crust. (Also, I forgot to note above, you can put in a spoon of black malt syrup – or molasses – instead of unrefined sugar when the starter is ripe if you want the interior to be darker brown.
Sprinkle the damp, sticky surface with a lot of poppy seeds. You could also use sesame seeds. You could go half and half, one side to the other. Do not mix them together. The seeds will spread out as the dough rises. Pat them in – lightly.
You could also make two loaves of bread, though this will be neither quite so much fun nor so impressive as one very large dome-shaped round loaf.
Cover the rising loaf with a damp non-fuzzy dish cloth. If you’re into bread baking, you might designate an old cotton cloth and then use that over and over. Do not use anything fuzzy or new – fibers will come off. Do not use anything that smells of detergent. Let the dough rise until a finger poke does not spring back. Sneak up on this point. Poke the rising dough several times. If it rises too much, you will have to knead it down and let it begin again – otherwise it will fall.
When the loaf appears to be about half risen, turn on the oven and let it heat to a low temperature. 300 degrees is good. 325 would be okay, but no higher than that. Use an oven thermometer if you’re nervous about your oven's thermostat setting.
Rye flour contains an enzyme that destroys wheat gluten in the presence of high temperature. That is why it is so often mixed with wheat flour, why it is often made as "sourdough" rye, and also why it bakes up best at a low temperature.
Depending on the oven temperature, let the bread bake 40 minutes or even 45 minutes. Insert a skewer or cake tester — if it comes out clean, the bread is probably done. Sounds a bit hollow when done -- if you tap it.
You’re hoping to achieve a springy-textured slightly damp loaf that toasts to perfection and keeps well. You are hoping for a crispy but supple crust and a good interior crumb. You don’t want a loaf that crumbles to bits when you cut it.
Remove the bread from the pan, and let it cool a lot before you slice it. Great with butter! Makes a wonderful jam and cheese sandwich!
Ingredients:
2 Cups Warm Water1 tsp. Unrefined Organic Sugar
2 tsps. Active Dry Yeast (preferably organic)
3 –5 Cups Organic White (Bread) flour or King Arthur bread flour
1 Cup Whole Rye Flour
1 tbsp. Caraway seeds
2 tbsps. Poppy Seeds
1 tbsp. Onion Flakes
3 tbsps. Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Pecans
1/2 cup Pepitas
Butter or extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tsps. Salt
This bread will have more flavor if you make the starter the day before: making the bread: in an empty one quart yogurt container or small bowl, dissolve a teaspoon of organic unrefined sugar in two cups of warm water, sprinkle two teaspoons of active dry yeast on the surface of the sugar water, wait until it foams up and then whisk in a cup of rye flour until it is quite smooth. Set the yogurt container in a larger bowl to catch the overflow.
You might like to use a mixture of whole grain rye and white flour for the starter. Let the starter sit overnight or for two nights. It can even go three nights, by which time it will have reached the maximum twanginess, and you might want to add another teaspoon of sugar so the yeast will have something to work on. Suit yourself on how much caraway seed to add. Sometimes I put it in with the starter, sometimes I wait and put it in with the flour, and sometimes I put some in with the starter and then add more with the flour.
When your starter is ready to proceed, set a large skillet over medium high heat, and tumble in a quarter cup each of pecans and pepitas. I broke up the pecans but left the pepitas whole. Toast them, stirring constantly, until they are crispy. Do NOT let them scorch. Just as they get brown, fling in a tablespoon of poppy seeds, a tablespoon of onion flakes, and a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Toasting will enhance the flavor of the nuts and seeds. Remove the skillet from the heat, stirring the while, and fling the nuts and seeds into a large mixing bowl; then add a tablespoon of currants.
Pour the starter over them. Get all the sludge up off the bottom first. During cold weather, you should probably warm the bowl by sloshing hot water around in it (then pouring out the hot water). Add two or three teaspoons of salt and a pinch of sugar. Adding no salt at all means your bread may rise uncontrollably fast. If you feel nervous, sprinkle on a bit more yeast, and let it fizz up, then stir it in.
Add three cups of organic white bread flour or King Arthur Bread Flour. Failing either of those, use the white flour you happen to have on hand. Add enough rye flour to make the total rye flour content one cup.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a stout wooden spoon. This will result in a really sticky paste. Add more white flour little by little until the dough is just barely firm enough to knead but still quite sticky. Turn it out on a well-floured board, and knead until mixed to the same consistency all through, and until it is just barely stiff enough to keep its shape as a ball or half-dome without immediately slumping. If it is too soft, it will stick to your fingers. And then it will begin filching over the lip of the baking pan as it rises -- you would really rather it did not. However, it should be as soft as possible, and not stiff.
Knead until there are no traces of flour on the surface of the dough and the consistency is smooth throughout, folding over and punching in as necessary to achieve this consistency.
Let the dough rise in a warm place. Your oven can be the “warm place” -- just turn it on for a minute or two. However, “hot” is not what you want – the racks should not scorch your fingers.
Butter or oil the bottom and sides of a round 12 inch cake pan. Sprinkle it lightly with corn meal; then to get the sides covered, tap the pan while holding it slanted up on edge, to cover the sides. Put the ball of bread dough in the exact center of the pan. It should slump down somewhat, and should already come close to filling the pan. It will fil the pan and dome up as it rises. Dampen the upper surface with water. You can glaze it with a bit of black malt syrup, if you want a darker brown exterior crust. (Also, I forgot to note above, you can put in a spoon of black malt syrup – or molasses – instead of unrefined sugar when the starter is ripe if you want the interior to be darker brown.
Sprinkle the damp, sticky surface with a lot of poppy seeds. You could also use sesame seeds. You could go half and half, one side to the other. Do not mix them together. The seeds will spread out as the dough rises. Pat them in – lightly.
You could also make two loaves of bread, though this will be neither quite so much fun nor so impressive as one very large dome-shaped round loaf.
Cover the rising loaf with a damp non-fuzzy dish cloth. If you’re into bread baking, you might designate an old cotton cloth and then use that over and over. Do not use anything fuzzy or new – fibers will come off. Do not use anything that smells of detergent. Let the dough rise until a finger poke does not spring back. Sneak up on this point. Poke the rising dough several times. If it rises too much, you will have to knead it down and let it begin again – otherwise it will fall.
When the loaf appears to be about half risen, turn on the oven and let it heat to a low temperature. 300 degrees is good. 325 would be okay, but no higher than that. Use an oven thermometer if you’re nervous about your oven's thermostat setting.
Rye flour contains an enzyme that destroys wheat gluten in the presence of high temperature. That is why it is so often mixed with wheat flour, why it is often made as "sourdough" rye, and also why it bakes up best at a low temperature.
Depending on the oven temperature, let the bread bake 40 minutes or even 45 minutes. Insert a skewer or cake tester — if it comes out clean, the bread is probably done. Sounds a bit hollow when done -- if you tap it.
You’re hoping to achieve a springy-textured slightly damp loaf that toasts to perfection and keeps well. You are hoping for a crispy but supple crust and a good interior crumb. You don’t want a loaf that crumbles to bits when you cut it.
Remove the bread from the pan, and let it cool a lot before you slice it. Great with butter! Makes a wonderful jam and cheese sandwich!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Max's Memphis BBQ - Red Hook
Little Red and I drove over to Red Hook recently to view the blue man movie in 3D at the Lyceum. The 3D was so startling — truly an amazing a treat! — that probably many more movies will be made this way in the future. It was not quite as good as a full-color hologram, but the technology definitely made the movie appear more lifelike than the ordinary widescreen Technicolor film seen in a theater. You should really go see Avatar again if you can handle yet another James Cameron love story where the man dies at the end.
The Lyceum people put plenty of real butter on the popcorn, which is a strong point in favor of crossing the river to see movies in Red Hook.
After the blue man movie came to its inevitable Cameronian apotheosis, Little Red and I sortied down to Holy Cow for some outstanding really yummy soft ice cream and, as usual, wondered why we thought we might need anything else to eat. I still pine for Carl’s — of course — but Holy Cow is a lot closer and you can at least order inside, which is good on a winter day.
Then we looked for the Red Hook Curry House — it seemed to be closed on Sunday afternoon. And Max’s Memphis BBQ was closed until five p.m., so we went over to Poet’s Walk Park for a bit of a trek through the slush. Just to work up an appetite. Many thanks to Scenic Hudson for keeping the meadows mowed — would it be possible, maybe, for them to work the same trick on Mead’s Meadow, over in Woodstock?
Max’s Memphis BBQ bills itself as the best barbecue in the Hudson Valley, and for all I know that may be true. Certainly the ribs were good enough to write home about. They were right smokey dry-rub ribs, properly cooked, not cooked to death or underdone, so next time I would probably just concentrate all my efforts on ribbing it up, even though they were not the best ribs I ever ate. A sandwich made of meat cut from the dry rub ribs would be very good — close to The Blue Ribbon Barbecue over there in West Newton, Massachusetts, which puts most of the barbecue up here in Yankee-land to shame.
We ordered a plate of ribs and chicken with a side of pulled pork. Just to be sure of sampling almost everything. We weren’t in the mood for sausages, salad, or any of the other delicious-sounding (and looking) entrées.
Max’s chicken and Max’s pulled pork seemed in the “ordinary” range — compared to the ribs. The chicken had been slathered with the usual rather ordinary sticky weet sauce, however, which was less to our liking than a dry rub would have been — and Max’s pulled pork, also, was sauced up with sweet stuff. I can make better pulled pork in the oven just roasting a top butt well sprinkled with salt and pepper and stuck with plenty of garlic. I did think Max’s smoke-man might have at least tried to offer dry rub as a selection on the chicken and pulled pork. I mean, come on — many people don't much like sweet red sauce on their pulled pork. Sweet red sauce gives barbecue a bad name, I believe.
Also, there weren’t any burnt ends in the pulled pork, and no way to order some. There was no option for sliced barbecue either. Max’s cheddar cheese grits, however, were outstanding. The collards were a bit too underdone for my taste, but that may well be the way folks like collard greens in the Hudson Valley. Vegans might enjoy them, but we probably won't see many vegans at Max's. There was no coleslaw to go with the pulled pork, but ... this gargantuan meal cost only thirty-five dollars, with the ice tea and pepsi, and I’d have no complaint if the dinner had been all ribs — which would have been cheaper. We did — somehow!—manage to almost all of it, even the chicken, so it can’t have been too bad, right?
But Max's ribs really stick in the mind.
They were much better, for example, than the ribs we ate several times recently at the Charlie Brown’s down near Princeton, New Jersey. Near as I could make out, those ribs had been pre-simmered in broth or water until they were fall off the bone tender and then slathered with sauce and grilled for a while. That method will fool some of the people most of the time and most of the people some of the time, but it ain’t really like using a smoker. It ain’t even like using a Weber.. Or maybe Charlie Brown’s just way overcooks their ribs to the point of being almost tasteless — down near Princeton. Maybe that's just New Jersey-style barbecue? And hence deservedly consigned to obloquy?
I dunno about the new Charlie Brown’s in Fishkill yet. But I’m guessing that the steak medallions and buffalo chicken fingers I like so much down in Princeton will be pretty good there.
Conveniently, Max’s is just down the road from Holy Cow, so theoretically you could work your way through a slab of ribs, then stop at Holy Cow for desert — it’s only a few hundred yards away — and then keep on to walk for an hour or two at Poet’s Walk Park.. I guess we were just in the mood to do things out of order last Sunday.
Or you could even go for a couple of much better than average burgers with plenty of fries at Uncle Chippie’s — right across from Holy Cow — probably for less than a full rack of ribs would cost you at Max’s. Try a rack of ribs next time before you to to Holy Cow. Max's has a good catering menu, too.
Max’s Memphis BBQ, 7215 Broadway, Red Hook, NY 845-758-6297
www.maxsbbq.com
The Lyceum people put plenty of real butter on the popcorn, which is a strong point in favor of crossing the river to see movies in Red Hook.
After the blue man movie came to its inevitable Cameronian apotheosis, Little Red and I sortied down to Holy Cow for some outstanding really yummy soft ice cream and, as usual, wondered why we thought we might need anything else to eat. I still pine for Carl’s — of course — but Holy Cow is a lot closer and you can at least order inside, which is good on a winter day.
Then we looked for the Red Hook Curry House — it seemed to be closed on Sunday afternoon. And Max’s Memphis BBQ was closed until five p.m., so we went over to Poet’s Walk Park for a bit of a trek through the slush. Just to work up an appetite. Many thanks to Scenic Hudson for keeping the meadows mowed — would it be possible, maybe, for them to work the same trick on Mead’s Meadow, over in Woodstock?
Max’s Memphis BBQ bills itself as the best barbecue in the Hudson Valley, and for all I know that may be true. Certainly the ribs were good enough to write home about. They were right smokey dry-rub ribs, properly cooked, not cooked to death or underdone, so next time I would probably just concentrate all my efforts on ribbing it up, even though they were not the best ribs I ever ate. A sandwich made of meat cut from the dry rub ribs would be very good — close to The Blue Ribbon Barbecue over there in West Newton, Massachusetts, which puts most of the barbecue up here in Yankee-land to shame.
We ordered a plate of ribs and chicken with a side of pulled pork. Just to be sure of sampling almost everything. We weren’t in the mood for sausages, salad, or any of the other delicious-sounding (and looking) entrées.
Max’s chicken and Max’s pulled pork seemed in the “ordinary” range — compared to the ribs. The chicken had been slathered with the usual rather ordinary sticky weet sauce, however, which was less to our liking than a dry rub would have been — and Max’s pulled pork, also, was sauced up with sweet stuff. I can make better pulled pork in the oven just roasting a top butt well sprinkled with salt and pepper and stuck with plenty of garlic. I did think Max’s smoke-man might have at least tried to offer dry rub as a selection on the chicken and pulled pork. I mean, come on — many people don't much like sweet red sauce on their pulled pork. Sweet red sauce gives barbecue a bad name, I believe.
Also, there weren’t any burnt ends in the pulled pork, and no way to order some. There was no option for sliced barbecue either. Max’s cheddar cheese grits, however, were outstanding. The collards were a bit too underdone for my taste, but that may well be the way folks like collard greens in the Hudson Valley. Vegans might enjoy them, but we probably won't see many vegans at Max's. There was no coleslaw to go with the pulled pork, but ... this gargantuan meal cost only thirty-five dollars, with the ice tea and pepsi, and I’d have no complaint if the dinner had been all ribs — which would have been cheaper. We did — somehow!—manage to almost all of it, even the chicken, so it can’t have been too bad, right?
But Max's ribs really stick in the mind.
They were much better, for example, than the ribs we ate several times recently at the Charlie Brown’s down near Princeton, New Jersey. Near as I could make out, those ribs had been pre-simmered in broth or water until they were fall off the bone tender and then slathered with sauce and grilled for a while. That method will fool some of the people most of the time and most of the people some of the time, but it ain’t really like using a smoker. It ain’t even like using a Weber.. Or maybe Charlie Brown’s just way overcooks their ribs to the point of being almost tasteless — down near Princeton. Maybe that's just New Jersey-style barbecue? And hence deservedly consigned to obloquy?
I dunno about the new Charlie Brown’s in Fishkill yet. But I’m guessing that the steak medallions and buffalo chicken fingers I like so much down in Princeton will be pretty good there.
Conveniently, Max’s is just down the road from Holy Cow, so theoretically you could work your way through a slab of ribs, then stop at Holy Cow for desert — it’s only a few hundred yards away — and then keep on to walk for an hour or two at Poet’s Walk Park.. I guess we were just in the mood to do things out of order last Sunday.
Or you could even go for a couple of much better than average burgers with plenty of fries at Uncle Chippie’s — right across from Holy Cow — probably for less than a full rack of ribs would cost you at Max’s. Try a rack of ribs next time before you to to Holy Cow. Max's has a good catering menu, too.
Max’s Memphis BBQ, 7215 Broadway, Red Hook, NY 845-758-6297
www.maxsbbq.com
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