Cooking with Hannibal: Coquilles

 

Hannibal and his fancy, fancy coffee maker

When a friend turns up at your house at the crack of dawn, you don’t give them instant coffee…at least not if you’re Hannibal Lecter. So when tortured soul and FBI profiler Will shows up at his house after a sleep walking incident, Hannibal whips out his fancy, fancy coffee maker to prepare a morning cup of joe. Unless you’re a history buff or coffee geek, you probably haven’t see a Balancing Siphon Coffee Maker before. It was invented in the 1850s (although early versions popped up in the 1840s, sans patent) as the double globe coffee maker fell out of favor. Basically, a siphon tube connects two canisters, one containing coffee and the other water. A lamp heats the water, which then percolates into the coffee canister and brews. As the two canisters balance, the lamp goes out. The brewed coffee is then vacuumed back into the first canister through a filter, and then can be dispensed using a spigot into a coffee cup. For instructions on how to brew using one of these, click here. They are not cheap, but then again, an electric coffee maker is quite an investment too. 

Cold Foie Gras Torchon with Late Harvest Vidal Sauce, Dried Figs, Warm Fresh Figs, and Blackberries

When Hannibal hosts the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit chief Jack and his wife Bella for dinner, he whips up a cold foie gras torchon. Bella is offended because of the supposed cruelty of foie gras and asks to be excused. If you’re really worried about animal cruelty, mass produced chickens and eggs are some of the worst culprits in the country, and affect a far greater proportion of the US population than the ducks or geese used for foie gras, which is essentially a specialty product. All of this is rather moot, since Hannibal’s foie gras is likely from a source other than ducks or geese! He claims to get his meat from an “ethical butcher” which is an interesting term for himself, a serial killer. Not sure sustainable and ethical butchery is set back or advanced by Hannibal being in their corner!

Cold Foie Gras Torchon with Late Harvest Vidal Sauce, Dried Figs, Warm Fresh Figs, and Blackberries

If you want to try out a recipe for Foie Gras Torchon, I’ve found Michael Ruhlman‘s adaptation from The French Laundry Cookbook to be a good guide, and gives extensive information on cooking methods, ratios and why to avoid sous vide for this recipe. If you just want to ogle some gorgeous sketches of this dish, see food stylist Janice Poon’s post on this episode. 

We never see the “pork” shank that Hannibal says is coming later in the meal for Jack and Bella, but one of my favorite pork dinners for slow cook cuts like shank is an overnight roast, like this Jamie Oliver recipe.

Cooking with Hannibal: Ceuf

Modified “Rabbit” Boudin Noir from Gastronomie Pratique by Ali-Bab aka Henri Babinksi

No animals (or humans) were harmed during the filming of episode 3 of Hannibal, Potage…not for deliciousness’ sake anyway. So I’ve moved right along to episode 4, Ceuf.

Apparently Hannibal is an avid food historian. My inner food historian geek rejoiced! How do we know? When he shows off his modified “Rabbit” Boudin Noir (a traditional French blood sausage), he mentions that he got the recipe from Gastronomie Pratique by Ali-Bab. Ali-Bab was the pen name of Henri Babinski, a French cookbook author who published this particular book in 1907. While I don’t happen to have a copy, you can find boudin noir recipes in any classic French cookbook. Or if you’re glued to the online recipe, CLICK HERE for a recipe from The New York Times. The one he serves doesn’t look like it’s accompanied by the traditional apples and potatoes, but by some sort of mystery cylinder. Knowing Hannibal, best not to ask what’s in it.

Cooking with Hannibal: Amuse-Bouche

“Pork” Loin with Cumberland Sauce of Red Fruit

Skipping right over the serial killer who grows little mushroom people gardens in the woods in this episode, Hannibal Lecter’s low-key dinner with Jack Crawford’s character features a little nod to my homeland – “pork” loin with Cumberland Sauce – a very traditional English berry sauce served with savory dishes. Here’s a recipe for those of you who want to recreate this with, ya know, anything other than human beings.

Cumberland Sauce

Ingredients:
1 orange
1 lemon
1 cup white sugar, granulated
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup homemade or storebought red currant jelly
2 T ruby port
1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Fill a small saucepan with the cold water.
2. Using a sturdy peeler, remove the peel of the orange and lemon in strips about an inch long. You’ll want to trim off any white pith on the underside of the peel.
3. Do that by placing one strip of peel at a time inside-up on a cutting board. Shave off all white parts using a sharp paring knife. Discard the white and place the cleaned peel in the cold water.
4. Once all the peel has been cleaned of pith, cut it into strips as thin as a sheet of paper. Place them back into the cold water. Now to remove the bitterness.
5. Add the sugar and place over a high heat. When it comes to a boil, strain the mixture, and reserve the peel.
6. Place the red currant jelly, ruby port and cinnamon stick in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisk regularly until the mixture starts to simmer. Add the lemon and orange zest and turn off the heat.
7. Cool the finished sauce. Serve chilled with cold cuts, cheeses or “pork” loin.

Coffee

Some of the more beautiful shots in Hannibal Lecter come from closeups of food or drink that are not yet shown to be food or drink. What better way to distance us from our ideas about what is and what isn’t acceptable? We look at something like the coffee above, as it cream swirls into it and it’s not immediately obvious what we’re looking at, but it’s mesmerizing. Then the zoom out shows the cup:

Coffee

Although it’s not actually Hannibal’s coffee – it belongs to the journalist Freddy Lounds – it’s a great example of the attention to detail given to the food. It’s no longer just something to be consumed, but something to be savored.

Cooking with Hannibal: Aperitif

Sautéed Lungs with Cherry Tomatoes

Don’t watch Hannibal while eating dinner. No really.

The NBC series takes a page (two actually) out of Thomas Harris‘ novel Red Dragon and expands them into a series. The notorious cannibal Hannibal Lecter (played as understated and sophisticated by Mads Mikkelsen, in contrast to Anthony Hopkins’ fava bean shtick – watch again here and shudder) has not been caught yet, and is working as a psychiatrist still. DC’s own Chef José Andrés is the culinary consultant behind the sort of horrifying-but-delicious-looking culinary creations of Hannibal Lecter in the series.

The first episode kicks off with Lecter whipping up a delightful Flambéed Lung with Cherry Tomatoes. Those aren’t cow’s lungs, baby. We’re treated to an up-close shot of him butchering the lungs, which I will spare you.

Protein Scramble: Eggs with Sausage

Start the day right with person sausage. That’s apparently Hannibal’s motto, when he stops by FBI profiler Will Graham’s in the morning with a lovely scrambled eggs and sausage. To be fair, he never specifies pork. Stay tuned for more cinematic gastronomy, courtesy of fiction’s favorite serial killer.

Protein Scramble: Eggs with Sausage

Please excuse the crappy quality of the photos – video stills function much like your vision after a 3-day bender.

For Pinterest Virgins

Photo from Rhonda Adkins
From left to right: Enid Hwang, Community Manager, Pinterest; Katie Parker, Senior Digital Food Editor, Better Homes and Gardens; Allison Long Lowery, Editor, CookingLight.com; Colby Grab, Communications Manager, Allrecipes.com; Irvin Lin, blogger, EatTheLove

I’ve heard chefs dismiss Pinterest in the past as something that’s for people who decorate. That seemed a bit unfair, but although I joined Pinterest quickly, I didn’t really understand how it functioned or what it could achieve until the 2013 IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) session on Pinterest. It’s one thing to have a social media tool on your radar, it’s another to master it. I’m not quite there yet, but working on it. For all my fellow Pinterest virgins, here’s a short recap with tips. Don’t worry, after the first few times on Pinterest, you might even like it!

The Panelists were:

• Enid Hwang, Community Manager, Pinterest
• Irvin Lin, blogger, EatTheLove.com
• Allison Long Lowery, Editor, CookingLight.com
• Katie Parker, Senior Digital Food Editor, Better Homes and Gardens
• Colby Grab, Communications Manager, AllRecipes.com

What is this Pinterest thing anyway?

Enid Hwang referred to it as a pinboard of sorts – you can attach photos, articles and other online content to yours the same way you might stick things that interest you to a corkboard. When browsing other peoples’ boards on Pinterest, you can search for things that interest you and pin them to your board too.

How is browsing on Pinterest different from an ordinary internet search?

It answers questions search engines can’t.

Internet search engines like google are great when you’re looking for an answer to a specific question like “who was Christopher Columbus?” But when faced with real-life questions like “what should I make for dinner?” Pinterest actually offers more relevant search results, since people devote whole boards to that very questions.

It’s for browsers.

Pinterest is also for browsers. Hwang made a great analogy. She imagined walking into the Ferry Building in San Francisco on a whim, and wandering into Scharffenberger, then noticing some amazing cocoa nibs there. When you entered the building, you had no idea of looking for cocoa nibs, but by browsing, you came to that item. Browsing on Pinterest is much the same – you didn’t necessarily go to Pinterest knowing what you were looking for.

It makes you discoverable to your audience in a more personal and controllable way than search engines.

Browsing creates new cycles of pinning – you discover things that you love and pin them to your own boards, sharing with your followers things that reflect your interests or your brand.

Why is Pinterest important to my personal brand or business?

You can track what your customers want.

Allison Long Lowery couldn’t stress enough the growth power of Pinterest in showing CookingLight.com what their readers want. By tracking what your readers are pinning from your site, you tell what content they’re interested in, as opposed to the content you think they might be interested in. It eliminates some of the guesswork.

For many major businesses, it’s overtaken facebook and twitter as a referrer – the way people get to your site/blog.

Since beginning to use Pinterest, CookingLight.com experienced a 747% increase in referral traffic. That’s more than facebook and twitter. That little tidbit had everyone in the audience (myself included) shifting uncomfortably and trying to figure out why they hadn’t taken the time to master Pinterest already. Colby Grab reported that for AllRecipes.com 80% of their traffic from social media sources came from Pinterest. Again, that’s a huge amount more than twitter and facebook.

What else can you do on Pinterest?

Fill in any gaps on your site.

You can join with strategic partners on Pinterest to fill in any gaps in content on your site.

Connect with a new audience.

Twitter, facebook and Pinterest all bring unique followers to your brand. By adding Pinterest you can amplify your visibility to your readers.

TOP TIPS FROM THE PANELISTS:

I’m not going to attempt to walk you through how to set up an account on Pinterest, ’cause I’m just not that tech person, but try here or here for more basic info that score. Here are some of the most useful tips from for once you’ve already set up an account:

• Mass brands like Better Homes and Gardens pin 15 to 20 times a day. If you’re an individual you can cut down on this but pin throughout the day so you don’t overwhelm your followers, suggested Katie Parker.
• Keep boards broad (in other words, don’t necessarily create one for Christmas cookies 2012, one for Christmas cookies 2013, just do the one). Instead of constantly creating new boards, Parker recommended adding to existing ones you’ve created.
  
• If you’re doing a seasonal or holiday board, create it a month or more in advance of the holiday.
• Pin, watch, adjust and repeat. If you go to Pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite (replacing “yourwebsite” with your website, obviously!) it will show you what your readers wanted to pin. You can also check out Curalate.com which tracks the history of an individual pin.
• Add Pinterest to your site. You can add a pin button to your site. You can also on most blogs run a plug-in that makes a Pinterest icon pop up when people hover over any image on your blog.
• Allison Long Lowery gets story ideas by watching what readers are pinning from other peoples’ sites as well – for example, new hot ingredients will experience a sudden surge, and that’s a sign that a story needs to be done on that ingredient, if it hasn’t already, because her readers are interested.
• People won’t necessarily go to the pages on your site that you want them to visit. If they visit something old or a page that you dislike, do not take it down. Update it, Long Lowery suggested.
• Show an interest in what others are doing. Approach your followers on Pinterest, and reply to comments, even if just to say thank you, said Colby Grab. Make sure your content is functional and not just cute – add hash tags, and think about creating a newsletter for Pinterest followers that highlights the top pinned items from your site that week.
• Label your images, adding branding and the recipes name. Irvin Lin recommended adding a graphic title to the image itself so it can’t be grabbed from unscrupulous readers without referring to the original link. You can do this on most photo editing programs, like photoshop or picmonkey.
• Bottom line, even though you can pin articles as well as images, the interest of your Pinterest followers is visual, Parker pointed out. If readers want to read the article attached to an image from your site, they’ll go to the site.
• Vertical images are better than horizontal, said Lin. They are more pin-friendly, because there is a set image width on Pinterest, and if your images is longer than it is wide, you get more image real estate, so to speak.
• Put the image you want people to pin up front in your blog post. Don’t bury it later in the post or it is less likely to be pinned, Lin pointed out.
• All the panelists agreed that you shouldn’t just add images from your site or that you’ve taken to your boards. Add other peoples’ content too, or it’s as though you’re reciting a monologue, instead of engaging in a conversation with your readers.
• Set pin description settings to automatic so the content says what you want it to say
• Make sure you include a URL in the image description when you’re adding it to your Pinterest boards. Some recommended using hash tags in your descriptions.

Tips for a Modern Book Tour

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The fantasy every aspiring writer has is that when a publisher accepts your book proposal, oodles of money will be waiting to take your book and introduce it to the world. In the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) session on The Modern Book Tour, first-time and multi-book authors alike came together to let burst that bubble. The good news is, there are creative ways to go about the modern book tour, stretch your budget, sell books, and more importantly, get the word out there about your brand and your book so that you reach that ultimate goal – the book selling itself.

The panelists were:

• Gaby Dalkin, Food Writer, Blogger at What’s Gaby Cooking, author of Absolutely Avocadoes.
• Aida Mollenkamp, Cooking Channel host, culinary curator, author of Keys to the Kitchen.
• Cheryl Sternman Rule, Blogger at 5 Second Rule, author of RIPE: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables.
• Joe Yonan, Food Editor of The Washington Post, author of Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One and Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook.
• Catherine McCord, Blogger at Weelicious.com, author of Weelicious Lunches.
• Virginia Willis, TV producer, Food Writer, Blogger at virginiawillis.com, author of Bon Appétit Y’all and Basic to Brilliant, Y’all.

TOP IDEAS AND TIPS:

1) “Think of yourself as a marketer as much as an author.” -Aida Mollenkamp. In other words, this book is an extension of you and your brand. It’s your job to get it out there and create “book evangelists” out of your readers.

2) Think beyond book readings, especially when it comes to funding. What makes sense with your book? First-time author Gaby Dalkin teamed up with an avocado board for her avocado-themed book tour, and instead of just book readings, she is throwing guacamole parties and avocado dessert parties (partially funded by the avocado board) so she can mingle with her readers.

3) Who is your audience? Let that guide where you sell. Cheryl Sternman Rule’s book was all about produce, so she set up a stall at farmers’ markets to represent her book. Gaby Dalkin‘s audience is mostly online, so she reached out to food bloggers to review her book.

4) Go with your brand. Catherine McCord had produced a lot of video content before her book release, so it made sense to make TV promos for her book.

5) When you get your signing advance, think about how you can leverage it to promote the book or make the book better in some way. Aida Mollenkamp saved a portion of hers for promotion and PR. Gaby Dalkin chose to have her book cross-tested and hired an outside publicist beyond the publisher, so when it came time to the book tour and she had used all her advance, smart partnerships with potential sponsors were all the more crucial. Cheryl Sternman Rule split hers with her photographer and cut costs on her book tour by staying with friends and family.

6) Recipe testing can be part of your PR. Catherine McCord wrote a book geared towards mothers, so she had 100 moms from the facebook community help test recipes, then cross referenced them for errors. That outreach helped spread the word among her potential readers.

7) “Authors think publishing companies have tons of money and publishing companies think authors complain a lot, but it’s a partnership.” -Virginia Willis. They’re betting that the advance they gave you won’t be money down the drain, that your book will sell. You’re betting that they’ll do all they can to support your selling the book.

8) Make sure you’re being smart about which events you pick. Virginia Willis teaches cooking classes, so when she’s asked to do one for part of her book tours, either the person who wants her to come or her publishing company foots the bill. BUT…make sure you don’t select additional events with competing companies or you will alienate the lovely people who are paying for your trip and helping you promote your book.

9) “Focus on venues that have a following of their own.” -Joe Yonan. Look up the venue and make sure they have a good track record of attendance for their events. Or hook up with a group that has a strong following in the community – a built-in audience.

10) Get a budget from your publisher. Joe Yonan felt he should have asked for one outright, since he suggested events and was supported by his publisher until a cut-off point that he wasn’t aware of beforehand. Now for his upcoming book, he’s being more strategic about which events he chooses based on his budget.

11) Don’t assume a big venue means a big audience. Virginia Willis found her audience was much bigger at unusual venues like hospitals or smaller towns than at obvious picks like Barnes and Noble, where she mostly pointed out the bathroom to customers. Audience member and cookbook author Crescent Dragonwagon suggested libraries.

12) Don’t assume. Ask. Catherine McCord had several readings where she assumed the venue was doing advance publicity and they assumed she was. The end result? Almost nobody came.

13) Set up a google alert on the subject of your book, then reach out and make personal connections with those people, suggested audience member and cookbook author Crescent Dragonwagon.

14) Don’t forget about online! Facebook chats, google hangouts and Shindig are part of the modern online book tour and a great way to get in touch with your audience without having to actually travel.

15) “Don’t be passive.” - Joe Yonan. He recalled an event at a restaurant, where he hadn’t asked how it was going to work, and the chef cooked a recipe from his book, but nobody told the attendees where it came from. He remembered them having no idea who he was. One great suggestion for special dinners was having the book included in the price of the ticket, so attendees are automatically buying your book.

Ferry Building Farmer’s Market

This gallery contains 16 photos.

Having the Ferry Building within 5 minutes of the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) conference this year was a real treat. For those of you who’ve never been, it’s chock-a-block with amazing restaurants, food stores, coffee shops and bakeries, from Blue Bottle Coffee to Miette Bakery to Il Cane Rosso. As if that weren’t […]

5 Top Writing Tips from IACP

Writer, Cookbook Author and Writing Coach Crescent Dragonwagon

Here are some of the most useful tips I picked up from Crescent Dragonwagon’s IACP writing session:

1) Don’t overstylize your writing – if you force a voice or style on your writing, “it’s like breast augmentation. You might get a lot of attention briefly and then it’s gone.” ‪

2) If you’re stuck on a word, write. Then redraft, redraft and redraft. Getting stuck on a word is like watching “a cat trying to catch a bug in the air.” Just let it come.

3) Practice writing every day without a goal. “Let go of the reins long enough to let the story take you.”

4) If you’re having a hard time focusing an idea you have for a story, try a writing exercise called dialoging, which Dragonwagon borrowed from American psychotherapist Ira Progoff. When we tried this in class, it shook loose a lot of ideas and the topic revealed its own character.

-Think of a topic, say, pizza. Then pick 8 defining moments in the life of that pizza and write them down from the point of view of the pizza. e.g. Regional iterations of me started popping up all over Italy, with a crispy thin crust in some areas, and a thicker one in others.

-Then write down 8 defining moments of you in relation to that pizza. e.g. Other kids with busy parents at my school used to order in pizza. I was always jealous because my mother categorically refused to allow takeout in the house.

-Then try a dialog between yourself and the pizza

e.g. 

Pizza: Why do you always order me with mushrooms, you weirdo? There are so many other toppings you could put on me.

Me: What can I say, I’m a creature of habit.

etc.

5) A great way to expand your writing vocabulary is by listening. For example, you could try writing down 4 things every day that you overhear.

The Traditions of La Cucina Povera

Through a mist of rain, I made my way to Ketchum’s Kitchen for my very first IACP conference event this year, La Cucina Povera.

LA CUCINA POVERA – a way of cooking traditional to Southern Italy, understanding the value of a mostly plant-based diet using locally grown grains, stretching animal protein as far as possible

Pot used by Chef Whims to cook shell beans in the embers of a wood-burning fire – Fagioli in Fiasco.

Chef Cathy Whims, of Portland, Oregon’s Italian restaurant Nostrana restaurant and Anthony Boutard, owner of Ayers Creek Farm and author of Beautiful Corn worked in tandem, combining Boutard’s ingredients and food history knowledge with Whims cooking know-how to demo the traditions of La Cucina Povera.

Chef Cathy Whims from Portland, Oregon restaurant Nostrana

Whims chatted with us about a recent trip to Puglia; she was amazed how the idea of la cucina povera stretched from the most casual to the fanciest fine dining restaurant during her trip. She demonstrated several dishes using Ayers Creek Farm products to show what she meant by La Cucina Povera.

Polenta paddle given to Chef Whims as a gift – used to stir polenta as it is cooking to stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Using a mixture of foraged greens from Ayers Creek Farm – called misticanza in Italian – she made Fava Beans with Potato, Sow Thistle, Dandelion. It’s a very traditional dish in Puglia, but one that’s popped up on a bunch of fine dining menus in the past 15 years.

Fava Beans with Potato, Sow Thistle and Dandelion Greens

Here are some of the greens foraged from Boutard’s property for this dish:

Sow Thistle

Radish Greens

Another example of the sort of frugality that’s a big part of La Cucina Povera – Alimentari in Italy sell dried pasta in large bins, and typically take the broken pieces at the bottom of the bin, combine them and sell them at a discount. Whims made a pasta dish of this mixture, together with some mussels, chickpeas, tomatoes and fresh basil. The mixture of different shapes that cook at different rates meant that this dish contained pasta at different levels of al dente.

Pasta Mista with Mussels and Chickpeas

Finally, we sampled a deliciously cheesy polenta that Whims cooked for the entire 2 hours of the class, using Boutard’s dried polenta. Since the polenta was made using a dark heirloom corn, flecks of the dark outside of the corn made the dried mixture have a speckled appearance, but it had a real depth of flavor.

Ayers Creek Farm dried polenta

The polenta was cooked in a traditional copper polenta pot. The narrow bottom prevents burning.

Copper polenta pot

Finito! Ayers Creek Farm Polenta made using Point Reyes Blue, Fontina Val d’Aosta and Parmesan

Wackadoo Easter Cheese Tradition

Photo from NYTimes.com

Forget chocolate eggs and bunnies. For the citizens of Panicale, Italy, Easter Monday is synonymous with cheese rolling, or Ruzzolone. It’s a surreal competition in which a wheel of pecorino cheese is yoked to a stick with a handle attached, and wheeled around the city. The person who completes the tour of the city with the fewest strokes wins.

The roots of this tradition can supposedly be traced back to the Etruscans. But the only evidence I’ve seen of that is a reference to the grave of the Olympic Games of a Roman family of Etruscan origin, Tarquinius. A so-called discus thrower is pictured whose posture resembles that of someone throwing a wheel of cheese.

Photo by Placida Signora

Examples of wooden wheels used for this sport have been found, like this one:

Photo from Tuscia Romana Info

Supposedly, this became over time a hard, extra-aged wheel of pecorino, which was wheeled around the sheep paths of various Etruscan villages. Despite the somewhat murky origins of this wackadoo tradition, some of the earliest references are local ordinances in the 1500s in S. Elpidio a Mare referring to fines if citizens wheeled their cheese on roads that led to churches. It seems clear that even if it is not an Etruscan tradition, its roots do go back centuries. There are traces of the “sport” in Umbria, Tuscany and Calabria, although Panicale seems to be the town where the tradition has the most longevity.

Other bizarre cheese rolling traditions: wheels of Gloucestershire cheese are still rolled by teams at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire to the bottom of the hill, without a leash, and competitors follow, falling down the hill to catch the cheese.

Photo from Cheese Rolling

The English tradition looks a good deal more painful!