All posts filed under: Food Musings

Coffee and almond rusks

Grab a Cup of Coffee and Some Rusks!

Published by Kathy Hunt

Last month I had a Marcel Proust-madeleine moment where a bite of a baked good—in my case, a rusk—brought back memories of a long ago event. Unlike Proust’s profound experience, where I ate this cookie was far more interesting than the memory itself. Chewing on a nut-flecked rusk while I stared out at four graceful impalas drinking from a water hole in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, I remembered that a decade ago I had written a syndicated article about twice-baked cookies and that that article had included rusks. Yeah, my memory wasn’t nearly as cerebral as Proust’s, either. Rusks have featured in South African cuisine since the 18th century, when Dutch farmers or boers living in South Africa looked for ways to make bread last longer. By baking loaves of dough twice, they learned that they could remove all the moisture from the loaves. This gave their bread or rusks an almost endless shelf life. In times when food was scarce and shopping for supplies involved traveling long distances over hot, barren landscapes, they …

beet, apple and herring salad

Beet and Apple Salad with Herring

Published by Kathy Hunt

Beets, apple, potatoes and herring. They may not sound like an obvious combo but these four come together in a delicious chilled salad known as sillsallad or, as I call it, beet and apple salad with, or without, herring. (Yes, I’m still preaching the joys of herring. How could I not? It’s an amazing, oily, omega-3 rich fish!) The perfect dinner companion In Sweden, the country from which this salad hails, sillsallad often shows up at holiday meals. With its ruby red hues and splashes of pink and green it makes for a festive dinner companion. A versatile dish, it pairs well with a variety of foods, including roast chicken and grilled or baked fish. Beet and apple salad with, or without, herring is also hearty enough to be served as a main course. It’s beet season! If you’ve dropped by a farmers’ market recently, you may have noticed the mounds of fresh beets for sale. We’re in the midst of the beet season, making this the perfect time for this salad. If you question …

rocky road pie

Chilled, No-Bake Rocky Road Pie

Published by Kathy Hunt

Every summer I have an intense fling with Haagen Daz’s Rocky Road ice cream. How could I not swoon over gooey marshmallows and toasted almonds swirled into semi-sweet chocolate ice cream? Talk about the perfect balance of taste and texture. This year my love affair came to an abrupt end when local markets replaced my beloved with such new Haagen Daz flavors as Honey Salted Caramel Almond and Midnight Cookies and Cream. These don’t hold a candle to my old flame. Without my standby pint in the freezer, waiting for whenever I crave a cool sweet, I’ve resorted to making chilled, no-bake rocky road pies instead. (You thought I was going to say “my own ice cream,” weren’t you? If you’re looking for an iced dessert, try my entries on mulled apple cider ice cream and queso helado.) A Depression era creation from the West Coast, the original rocky road ice cream consisted of walnuts, marshmallows and chocolate ice cream. Almonds later replaced the walnuts but otherwise the today’s recipe contains the same ingredients. Whether …

scoop of queso helado

Queso helado — Binge-worthy ice cream!

Published by Kathy Hunt

Ever try a new food and think, “Oh, man! I gotta eat this every day!”? That was exactly how I felt after my first spoonful of queso helado. Prior to visiting the South American country Peru, I had never heard of this iced sweet. As soon as I arrived in the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the country’s second largest city, Arequipa, I saw it everywhere. Along with its reputation for art, literature, baroque architecture crafted from volcanic ash and the volcanoes that produced this ash, Arequipa is known as the birthplace of queso helado. In Spanish queso helado means “frozen cheese” but this creamy, cinnamon-spiced ice cream seems more like frozen heaven to me. Its deceptive name comes from its appearance. When scraped rather than scooped from a metal bowl, the slabs of ice cream resemble wedges of cheese. Don’t let looks fool you. It tastes nothing like cheese. What’s in queso helado? Unlike traditional ice cream, queso helado contains no cream. Instead it features three types of milk, sweetened condensed, evaporated and whole …

ceviche with sides of calamari and corn

Ceviche — It’s fresh and fast!

Published by Kathy Hunt

The national dish of Peru I love learning how to make a local speciality the right way. On a recent trip to Peru that specialty was ceviche. Considered the national dish of Peru, ceviche, or cebiche as it’s sometimes spelled, got its start during the Inca Empire. During that time Peruvian cooks along the coast would marinate freshly caught fish in the Andean corn alcohol chicha. After the Spanish conquest of the 16th century they began to incorporate European ingredients into their cooking. This included adding citrus to their seafood. Although it began as a coastal dish, ceviche is found throughout Peru. Inland, where rivers and lakes are common, cooks use Peruvian trout (truncha) and prawns (camarones). In the capital Lima sea bass, corvina drum and other semi-firm to firm white-fleshed fish are featured. What does it take to make an outstanding ceviche? Obviously, in a dish that features raw seafood, you should have very fresh, clean tasting fish. The fish itself should be semi-firm to firm in texture; you don’t want your fish falling …

stack of cookbooks

The Annual Cookbook Review: Books to Give, Get and Gobble!

Published by Kathy Hunt

Although I write and buy books and cookbooks, I am always amazed by the tremendous number published every year. Who does cookbooks? Celebrities, celebrity chefs, musicians, athletes, bloggers, restaurants, farmers’ markets . . .. The list goes on and on. With so many new books on store shelves—and seemingly more coming out each week—it’s tough to know which ones will satisfy and which will leave you hungering for something more substantial. To help separate the filets from the hot dogs, the Bordeaux from the Two-Buck-Chuck, it’s the annual cookbook review! Included this year are baking books, a cocktail guide, vegetarian, Italian, German, Mediterranean and English cuisines as well as several food writing books and a graphic novel-like book. Happy shopping, reading and cooking! The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) If you want to learn the proper way to mix, bake and decorate a myriad of cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, breads, pastries and candy, reach for The Baking Bible. Perfect for bakers of any skill level, this comprehensive, IACP Award-winning cookbook …

pickled herring on brown bread in Denmark

Further Fish Tales: Now It’s “Herring!”

Published by Kathy Hunt

By now most know the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child.” In my case it takes a village of friends and family to launch another book. Two Fridays ago a wonderfully supportive group whom I’m honored to have as members of my village celebrated the publication of my nonfiction book Herring: A Global History. Part of Reaktion Books‘ Edible Series, Herring  explores the historical, economic, cultural and environmental impact of this small, omega-3-rich, silvery fish. When people hear the topic of my book, they invariably ask the same thing. “Herring?” There are always a few who misunderstand and ask, “Hairy?” No, I didn’t write about hirsute people but I’m sure that would be a fascinating topic, too. Once everyone is on the same page about the subject, we get into what attracted me to it. After the publication of Fish Market I had a wealth of knowledge about seafood. I also had a desire to share more about a specific, historic and fascinating fish, the Atlantic and Pacific herring. Although a …

cinnamon pie crust sticks

Cinnamon Pie Crust Sticks Like Nana Used to Make

Published by Kathy Hunt

A few weeks ago I attended a food journalism conference where editors told the assembled writers, “No more grandmother stories.” Everybody has a grandmother. No one wants to hear about her anymore. The timing couldn’t have been stranger. Just that morning, while wandering around Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, I came across something that I hadn’t seen or thought about in years, something that reminded me of my paternal grandmother, whom I also hadn’t seen in years and about whom I’ve never written. A relic from early childhood, they were strips of pie crust dusted in cinnamon sugar. At the Market they were called “cinnamon sugar pie fries.” When I was a little kid, they were ‘scraps of leftover pie dough that Nana had decorated with cinnamon sugar and baked.’ Now I think of them as cinnamon pie crust sticks. Unlike many food writers, I don’t have charming stories of baking with my grandmothers or mother. By the time that I was old enough to whisk eggs or roll out dough, my maternal grandmother was gone …

uncooked lime-marinated swordfish kebabs

Grilling Lime-Marinated Swordfish Kebabs

Published by Kathy Hunt

Want a quick, crowd pleasing seafood dish for your next summer cookout? Try lime-marinated swordfish kebabs. Officially, I created this recipe for my seafood cookbook Fish Market (Running Press, 2013) but I’ve made variations of it for years. Lime appears often in my seafood cooking. I love the slightly sweet, clean flavor of this citrus and how it adds complexity and life to fish and shellfish. That dash of green zest on a white-hued fish isn’t bad, either. When I can’t find sustainable, North Atlantic handline or harpoon-caught swordfish, I substitute another firm, white fish. That can be anything from Pacific yellowfin or longtail tuna and mackerel to U.S-sourced snapper, mahi mahi and striped bass. When making this and any other seafood dish, I consult Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch to ensure that I use sustainable fish. Because I’m always a little concerned about losing chunks of my fish kebabs to a scorching hot grate, I lay these skewers on lightly oiled tin foil before placing them on the grill. If you’re not the worrying …

slice of peanut butter pie

Perfecting Peanut Butter Pie

Published by Kathy Hunt

Growing up outside of Pittsburgh, I always assumed that peanut butter pie came from my part of the country. Every picnic my family attended and almost every restaurant where we ate offered a version of this rich sweet. Some bakers made it with a classic pie dough. They spooned the no-bake filling into the crisp crust and served the dessert at room temperature. Others lined their pie pans with graham cracker, shortbread or Oreo cookie crumbs, added the peanut butter mixture and refrigerated or froze the pie before serving. Each type—crunchy yet velvety or crumbly, hard and cold—had its diehard fans. The variations didn’t end with crust and consistency. Toppings ranged from chopped peanuts, shaved chocolate, cocoa powder or more cookie crumbs to whipped cream, chocolate glazes, or, my least favorites, overly sugary caramel, banana or strawberry sauces. No matter what differences existed, people gobbled up this dessert. In spite of my home turf’s love of this pie, Western Pennsylvanians cannot claim it as one of their own. Peanut butter pie has its roots in …