The 64-dollar question is…does pumpkin pie taste better made with fresh roasted pumpkin or canned pumpkin?

The answer is…it depends on what your definition of “tastes better” is.

We are no “America’s Test Kitchen”  — who’s got time for that — but we did do a little experiment. (And when I say “we” you know I mean “me.”)

I roasted a pumpkin and made a pie. Then I made the exact same pie with canned pumpkin. Lots of spices were involved.

You should know, roasting a pumpkin takes a bit more work than opening a can. Driving to Costco to pick up one of their monster 12-inch pies might be the easiest thing of all.

(By the way, if you want the recipe for the Costco pumpkin pie, get a pen, ready? … Take 1 ton of pumpkin pie filling…)

Oh, I’m kidding about the Costco pie.

Back to the fresh vs. canned smack down.

My original hypothesis was that it doesn’t matter whether you start with fresh or canned pumpkin — because all the spices would drown out any taste differences.

And I was right…sort of. In the end, there was a difference between the two pies.

But it has less to do with taste, and more to do with texture.

The canned pumpkin pie was creamier than the pie made with fresh roasted pumpkin.

If I had to choose one, I would choose the fresh roasted pumpkin pie.

I liked the firm texture, although the canned version reminded me of all the pies from Thanksgiving pasts.

So there you have it. Fresh roasted is the way to go…unless I’m pinched for time. Then I’ll pop open a can without a smidgen of guilt.

What will it be for you?  Roasted or canned…or Costco?

Spiced Pumpkin Tart

Pie or tart, it really doesn’t matter what you call it. I named it a tart because I used a tart pan, but it technically is a pie dough, rolled into a tart pan. I did add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the easy buttery pie dough recipe (adding it with the flour in step 1).

The combination of spices — including white pepper — and peppery, fresh ginger makes this a hyper-spiced pie. I love the flavor but really love the tiny bit of heat — a pie that bites back.

Makes 1 deep dish 9-inch tart

Ingredients
1 recipe for easy, buttery pie dough
2 large eggs
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
3/4 cup dark brown sugar*
1-3/4 cup fresh roasted pumpkin puree OR 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon brandy (optional)
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon each of: ground cloves, white pepper, allspice
1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

Method
1. Heat the oven to 375° F. Roll the pie dough out large enough to fill a 9-inch deep dish pie or tart pan (about 13-14 inches). Press gently into pan. If using  a pie pan, crimp edges. If using a tart pan, roll the rolling pin over the top to cut the excess dough off. Chill the dough-filled pan in the fridge.

2. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until blended. Whisk in the evaporated milk and brown sugar.

3. Whisk in the pumpkin puree until blended. Whisk in the remaining ingredients: brandy (if using), fresh ginger, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, white pepper, allspice and nutmeg, until smooth.

4. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Pour the filling into the pan. Place in the oven and bake until the center of the pie barely jiggles when moved and the crust is light golden brown (the crust will shrink and the filling will rise.)

5. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes. Place the tart pan on a large can, and slip the ring down.

6. Slide the pie off the metal bottom onto a rimless serving platter. (This is a little tricky. I use a thin, large metal pizza spiel, but you could use any wide, thin spatula, working slowly and carefully because a) the pie is hot, and b) it will break if you’re not careful.)

7. Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour and then refrigerate until chilled.

8. Slice the pie, when chilled, into 8 or 10 pieces. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream if you like.

*If using light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar, add 1 teaspoon of molasses.

[NOTE: This pie will keep for 3 or 4 days, but I think it tastes best the 2nd day, which comes in handy, since it needs a while to chill to firm up.]

Tags: canned vs fresh pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pumpkin tart, recipe, roasted pumpkin
Posted in Desserts, Recipes | 11 Comments »

Modern Steak, the 12th restaurant concept from local, iconic restaurateur Sam Fox opens for dinner next Monday, October 26. Soon after, the restaurant will also begin serving lunch.

Today, I was invited to attend one of the many “friends & family” lunches.

It certainly was a good deal for me (it was free) and good for the restaurant because they get to “practice” on friendly, sympathetic folks before opening the doors to paying customers.

The interior is decidedly feminine, with palette colors of baby blue, soft gray and violet, and a lattice white ceiling. It’s too modern to be called “frilly” but it has a strong womanly feel — which none of the men in the room seemed to mind, as far as I could tell.

Even the sparkly chandeliers have a modern, bubble twist.

The women’s bathroom takes the lady-like theme a step further, with fuchia wall paper and lots of mirrors.

The patio introduces even more shades of blue and bright orange chairs.

But the most interesting feature is the shade covering, a curved metal shield that looks like a sheet of decoratively cut paper.

Modern Steak is located at Scottsdale Fashion Square in the new Barney’s wing. And because it’s in a mall, it cleverly has a walk up window serving sliders, french fries and ice cream sandwiches.

The house bread is herbed Parmesan rolls. The texture is a cross between a soft, chewy dinner roll and focaccia, and the sour cream, butter and chive spread seems befitting a “steakhouse.”

But steak isn’t the only thing on the menu.

In fact, at lunch there are only two steaks and a couple burgers. The dinner menu has a much more extensive steak selection, and a fairly deep seafood offering as well.

The lunch maple-brined Scottish salmon ($15) is a petite portion of seared salmon served with sweet potato disks, buttery Brussels sprout leaves and a sweet, tangy barbecue glaze with bacon bits.

The Modern club sandwich ($11) is four hearty triangles of oven-roasted turkey, very smoky bacon, Havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato and mashed avocado, served with garlicky fries.

I thought I was too full to order dessert until I saw the menu, and spotted the Valhrona chocolate and peanut butter pudding with peanut butter bar cookies.

And, apparently, I wasn’t too full after all.

Seriously, dangerously, lick-the-spoon delicious.

Modern Steak
7014 E. Camelback Road, Scottsdale
480-423-7000

Tags: feminine steakhouse, Modern Steak, restaurant, Sam Fox
Posted in Restaurant Journal | 6 Comments »

I could have titled this post simply: “How to Cook Beans” because, with a few exceptions, there isn’t much difference from one dried bean to the next in terms of cooking.

You soak (or not — hence the exceptions), simmer, and voila! Cooked beans.

What else is simmered along with the beans is up to you…and the bean.

Calypso beans are either black and white, or red and white. Don’t get too attached to the striking contrast, because it fades dramatically with cooking.

Calypso beans hold their shape if you don’t cook them to death. That said, I’ve found they need about two hours, even though I’ve see cooking instructions calling for as little as an hour. It probably depends on how fresh they are (dried beans have a “freshness” but it’s difficult to gauge, because there isn’t a “freshness” date on the package.)

They taste similar to the Italian white cannellini bean, only a little nutty, if a bean can be nutty.

(Technically a bean can be nutty. Take the peanut, for example. The peanut isn’t really a nut at all, it’s a bean — or legume if we want to get fancy with our nomenclature.)

Regardless of what we call it, the dried beans can be soaked overnight, or softened with the quick soak method:

• Cover beans with 1-inch of water
• Bring to a boil, then turn the heat off
• Cover and soak 1-hour
• Rinse in cool water, drain, and proceed with recipe

While the beans are soaking, prep all your other ingredients. I’m using an onion and garlic, and of course, I need some kind of fat to saute those aromatics in — bacon fat — which hopefully doesn’t come as a big shock to anyone.

It’s a well documented fact that bacon and beans are the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the culinary world (you think I just make this stuff up, don’t you?)

I chop the bacon (or in this case,  thin-sliced, cured and smoked pork loin — Irish Bacon (Rashers) — from a local pork producer) and slowly render out the fat over medium heat.

You can reserve the fried bits to sprinkle on top of your finished dish, if you don’t eat them all waiting for the beans to cook — not that you would do that.

Since these Calypso beans taste like cannellini beans, I add Italian Herb Mix from Penzey’s Spice Co.

A quick two hours later, the beans are tender and ready for salt and pepper.

I don’t season my beans until the end. Most chefs don’t, but I read somewhere that salting the beans in the beginning won’t make the beans tough. Old habits die hard, so I still wait until the end to season the beans.

Taste the beans after 1-1/2 hours. That might be all they need. If some are soft but some are still too toothy, cook another half hour. Now you can season your beans with salt and pepper. You can also throw in some fresh herbs, if you’re so inclined.

And that’s it.

But now what do you do? You can serve a bowl of beans for dinner, maybe with a slice of hot buttered cornbread, or served them as a side.

You can cool them and use in salads. These beans go particularly well with canned tuna.

If you save the cooking liquid, you can even turn them into a soup by pureeing the beans with just enough of the cooking liquid to get the consistency of a creamy soup (but without the cream, of course, unless you’re so inclined.)

We have no hard and fast rules around here.

Calypso Beans

Serves 6

Ingredients
1 pound dried red or black Calypso beans
2 tablespoons bacon fat
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 2 medium)
7 cups cold water
2 teaspoons dried Italian herb mix
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)

Method
1. Soak the beans overnight, or use the quick soak method outlined above.

2. Drain the beans and rinse with cool water. Set aside.

3. Heat the bacon fat* in a large sauce pat or small stock pot over medium heat. Stir in the onions and garlic and stir, cooking just until the onions and garlic are fragrant, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the beans to the pan, plus 7 cups of cold water. Turn the heat to high and bring the beans to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer.

5. Stir in dried herbs. Simmer, uncovered, until beans are tender, but not mushy, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

6. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. (Don’t be stingy with the salt unless your doctor told you to, in which case, ignore me.) Stir in fresh thyme if using.

*If you don’t have a jar of bacon grease stashed in the fridge, take 2 or 3 slices of bacon and chop into very small pieces. Cook the bacon, slowly, over medium heat until crispy. Spoon out the bacon bits and you should have enough fat to saute the onions and garlic.

Tags: Calypso beans, how to cook beans, Penzeys, side dish
Posted in How To..., Recipes, Side Dishes, Tips & Tutorials | 1 Comment »

image courtesy of Bourbon Steak

Michael Mina, the hotter-than-hot, award-winning chef behind 16 restaurants across the country, including Bourbon Steak at the Fairmont Scottsdale resort, is coming to Scottsdale.

The question is, will he scout for other Phoenix chefs to poach while he’s here? (I swear there is a pun there…see if you can figure it out…read on…)

You may have read, Chef Matthew Taylor of Metro Brasserie is leaving to take the top toque position at Michael Mina the restaurant, at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

If you’re attending one of the events Mina is scheduled to attend while in town, you’ll have the opportunity to ask him in person if he has his eye on any other talented valley chef.

Meet Mina at Crave Arizona

The first chance to meet Mina in person is during Crave Arizona.

Bourbon Steak is one of four restaurants hosting three-course wine lunches on Friday, October 23 (tickets are $50). The other three are Atlas Bistro, Avalon and Cafe Forte.

It seems like a good deal on the surface. Arizona Restaurant week featured 3 courses for $29 (wine excluded). Three courses with wine at each course for $50 is reasonable, if not a total bargain — especially at Bourbon Steak, which is upping the ante with four courses, all paired with wine.

Bourbon Steak’s menu:

Bacon vinaigrette dressed baby lettuces
with roasted Bosc pear, blue cheese and pomegranate

Spicy, lychee-drizzled tapioca-crusted Thai snapper
with forbidden rice and fried Japanese eggplant

A trio of beef  (all butter-poached of course — Mina’s specialty)
with horseradish mashed potatoes, soy-glazed shiitakes
and jalapeno creamed corn

Warm chocolate pudding cake
with malted milk chocolate ganache and a mini malted milkshake.

Palmina winery from Lompoc, California, just northwest of Santa Barbara, will be pouring their specialty: Italian varietal wines. Not generally available outside of restaurants and high-end wine stores, Palmina wines retail for $20++ per bottle for whites and $40++ for reds — before the restaurant markup.

Meet Mina at Food and Wine for the Soul

The second opportunity to rub elbows with Mina is on Saturday, October 24. The Fairmont Scottsdale is hosting a series of vacation packages over the next few months called “Season of Personal Discovery.” Each themed weekend event will feature renowned authors and the one taking place on the 24th, is called “Food and Wine for the Soul.”

Six food and wine authors will be featured at a “meet the authors” luncheon, as well as a cocktail reception/dinner later that evening. The luncheon is more than just a luncheon — it’s a day-long event featuring cooking demo sessions with the authors plus the lunch.

Even though the event is geared toward traveling foodies, local Arizona residents can purchase tickets ($65 for the day-long event and $95 for the evening event) to mingle with the nationally acclaimed culinary celebrities (not to mention all those highfalutin traveling foodies.)

Besides Mina, Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and Robin Goldstein, author of The Wine Trials and editor-in-chief of The Fearless Critic series will be there. ( I recently gave my brother one of the Fearless Critic books for his town — a dining guide written by non-professional food critics, destined to put me out of work, but nonetheless, a great concept.)

Michelle Bernstein, a James Beard Best Chef of the South, owner of Miami’s Michy’s and author of Cuisine A Latina will also be on hand. So will Paula Deen’s sons, Jamie and Bobby. They now have two cookbooks (Y’all Come Eat and The Deen Bros. Take it Easy). And who doesn’t appreciate how much they love their mama?

For the $65 price, you get a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. experience. (It conflicts however, with Crave Arizona’s Grand Tasting scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Technically you could hit the Fairmont event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then head to the last couple of hours of the Crave event, but you’d miss the wine experts scheduled at the end of the Fairmont event.)

Here is the schedule for the $65 Food and Wine for the Soul Saturday event:

• 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. : Opening session and Michelle Bernstein (cooking demo)
• 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Jamie and Bobby Deen (cooking demo)
• 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.: Meet the Authors Luncheon (hosted by Mina)
• 2:15 p.m. to 4:oo p.m.: Karen MacNeil and Robin Goldstein (I’m guessing there will be wine with these two wine experts)

The menu for the author’s luncheon on Saturday is almost identical to the Crave Arizona Friday wine lunch, with a few twists. So there isn’t a big incentive to attend both the Friday Crave AZ wine luncheon and the Saturday Fairmont Food and Wine for the Soul event. Unless you just can’t get enough of Mina’s butter-poached beef, which is totally understandable.

If you have the energy (and cash to match), you could attend the Friday Crave AZ wine lunch, attend the Saturday Fairmont lunch, then zip down to the Crave AZ Grand Tasting at the Waterfront, and finally return to the Fairmont for the evening cocktail reception and dinner. And while you’re at it, you might as well shell out a few bucks more for a room. You’ll be too exhausted to drive home.

Plus, you might be able to corner Mina after the dinner and find out if he plans on snagging any more local chefs for his burgeoning empire.

Tags: Bourbon Steak, Crave Arizona, Metro Brasserie, Michael Mina, Palmina wines
Posted in News & Nibbles | No Comments »

By now you’ve heard/read/absorbed-by-osmosis that the miniature sugar pumpkin, not the behemoth “jack-o-lantern” pumpkin, is the pumpkin to use for making pie…that is, if you’re not opening a can of pumpkin puree.

These dinky “pie” pumpkins are about the size of a small cantaloupe (only more squat) and weigh roughly two pounds, give or take a few ounces.

My “demo” sugar pumpkin is 2-1/4 pounds. Approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes later (and a little elbow grease), I have almost 2 cups of roasted, pureed pulp…not to mention almost 3/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds. For comparison, it’s about the same amount of puree in a 15-ounce can. Except, alas, with canned pumpkin, there are no bonus pumpkin seeds.

The skin of a sugar pumpkin is extremely hard, which is why some people tend to forgo cutting it altogether and roast it whole.

I cut them because I want to harvest the seeds to toast later for a snack. And, I have nightmares that the darn thing will explode in the oven, forcing me to spend the rest of the evening cleaning up the mess while my sister puts on glass slippers and flits off with my Prince Charming.

It takes careful knife work to cut one of these babies in half. It’s much easier to carve a pumpkin for Halloween.

I use a sturdy chef’s knife (one with a pointy end, not a santuko) and I don’t get in a hurry. First I cut the stem off. Then I stick the pointy end of the knife in the top and push down, repeating several times to make a larger and larger slit. With some brute force, the knife eventually works through the flesh, perhaps even causing the pumpkin to crack, making it easier to rock the knife back and forth.

[FINE PRINT: For goodness sakes, be careful if you decide to cut up your pie pumpkin. The knife could slip and hurt somebody -- proceed at your own risk.]

If you have any reservations at all, have your Prince Charming do the cutting part.

Once I’ve cut the pumpkin in half, I cut each half in two. It’s much easier to scrape out the seeds from quarters.

Later, while the pumpkin is roasting, I put the harvested seeds in a large bowl of water and start squishing the pulp to release the seeds. The pulp will sink to the bottom and the seeds will float.

It will take a couple changes of water to get the seeds completely clean. They’re slippery little suckers.

(By the way, Jess Thompson, a poignant food writer, has a lovely post about harvesting the seeds with a recipe for spiced pumpkin seeds.)

Place the cleaned pumpkin quarters on a lined baking sheet. I brush them with a little olive oil so they don’t dry out too much, but if you’re oil-adverse, skip it and just brush them with some water.

Place the baking sheet in a preheated 400º F. oven and roast until tender, about 35-40 minutes.

Once the pumpkin is fork tender, remove and cool. Then scrap out the pulp.

It will look a little stringy. (Hey, even Cinderella needed a fairy godmother.)

The last step is to puree the pumpkin in a food processor. This, too, will take a little effort. Lots of starting and stopping, and in between, lots of plunging the pumpkin back down into the blades.

You know, Thomas Edison said “There is no substitute for hard work.”

Um, yes there is. It’s called canned pumpkin.

Roasted Pumpkin Puree

Makes 3-1/2 to 4 cups puree

2 sugar pumpkins (4-1/2 to 5 pounds total)
2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

1. Heat oven to 400º F.

2. Cut the pumpkins in half and cut each half in two, for a total of four wedges.

3. Scrape out the seeds (save and clean for toasting later).

4. Place the pumpkin quarters on a lined baking sheet. Brush with olive oil (or water).

5. Place in the oven and roast until fork tender, about 35-40 minutes. Remove and cool slightly.

6. Scrape flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse, stopping frequently to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until the pumpkin flesh is mostly smooth.

NOTE: Pumpkin puree will keep for 4 days, covered and refrigerated, or freeze for up to 1 month.

Tags: homemade pumpkin puree, how to roast pumpkin, pie pumpkin, pumpkin, sugar pumpkin
Posted in How To..., Tips & Tutorials | 14 Comments »

I knew it would come to this. It was unavoidable.

In the course of planning a trip to San Francisco followed closely by a trip to Yountville, I immediately thought “chicken” — a perfectly logical connection.

Well, it is if you connect the dots: San Francisco is the home of Zuni Cafe and Yountville is the home of Bouchon.

Within the span of three days, I had the rare opportunity to sample arguably two of the world’s best roast chickens.

Who could pass that up? Certainly not me.

First, Zuni’s roast chicken. It takes an hour from order-to-table. Normally, waiting an hour for food in a restaurant would be insane, but Chef Judy Rodgers has been serving her roast chicken for more than two decades, and no one seems to mind the wait.

Partly because the rest of the Zuni menu is full delicious distractions. Like an heirloom tomato and cucumber salad surrounding a pile of creamy burrata or a plate of whisper-thin Serrano ham slices paired with garden-fresh black-eyed peas and paprika oil.

Thomas Keller is fanatic about chicken, too. His Bouchon bird sports gorgeous mahogany skin and a chicken jus that would go over just as well if served in a glass — to drink.

But Zuni’s chicken comes with an outrageous bread salad studded with currants and pine nuts. The bread is buttery and crisp when it arrives at the table, but by the time we get to the last piece, it’s soft and chewy from soaking in savory chicken jus.

Bouchon has killer bread, too, but it comes before the meal.

Pain d’Epi (“ear of wheat”) baguettes are placed on the white butcher paper tabletop along with a saucer holding salted butter, white bean puree drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and two toasted baguette slices.

Zuni’s chicken serves two and costs $48. Bouchon’s chicken serves one and costs $26.

Both chickens have been brined, resulting in juicy, moist birds. Both birds are high-heat roasted with lots of herbs.

Bouchon’s chicken has crispy skin; Zuni’s does not.

But Zuni Cafe has a secret weapon — one that tries desperately to sway my opinion about who has the best roast chicken.

Smack dab in the center of Zuni Cafe sits a wood-fired, brick oven. I guess it’s not really a “secret.” You’d know it’s there even if you didn’t see it, although it’s impossible to miss. Smoke permeates the room, even wafting out onto the street.

So is it really fair to declare one bird over the other? Given the opportunity, I’d ecstatically sit down to another plate from either restaurant.

Both restaurants have cookbooks with pages that painfully, minutely, spell out the detail the making of the chickens. My own roast chicken recipe borrows the Bouchon technique of high heat.

Now that I’ve sampled Zuni’s smoky version, I’m contemplating a date with the smoker box on my grill. But it won’t be the same.

Sometimes the best way — perhaps the only way — to experience the real deal is to go straight to the source. The Zuni Cafe roasted chicken wins by a log.

Tags: Bouchon, Restaurant Journal, roasted chicken, Zuni Cafe
Posted in Travel Eats | 13 Comments »

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