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Whip up your own butter, no churn required
on 01/22/10 at 9:00 am | Butter is butter, right? Not anymore. Today there's cultured butter, premium butter, pasture butter. There's hand-rolled, farmhouse seasonal butter. Like beer, cheese and chocolate, America's preeminent bread-topper has gone all descriptive and artisanal on us. So how to navigate the maze of adjectives? |
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Best in Wisconsin foodie books from 2009
on 12/18/09 at 9:00 am | There's nothing like a drive across Texas to help you get through a reading list. Most of the following are from the stack of books I caught up with while on a Thanksgiving trip to the Lone Star State. Thank goodness my husband likes to drive, because the freeway was a drag, while the reading was a treat. These titles are all food-related and published in 2009, and all have a Wisconsin connection. |
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Clay pot chicken and vegetables (recipe)
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | Whenever someone asks me how to cook: a) simply; b) seasonally; and c) sustainably -- and all in the face of cold climes -- one of the recipes that come to mind is chicken and vegetables cooked in a clay pot. Here, in fact, is my top 10 countdown for reasons to make this dish. |
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Sauerkraut is no longer out - recipe
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | "Sexy" is not a word that's usually associated with sauerkraut. Even in Wisconsin, the nation's largest supplier of cabbage grown for sauerkraut, its old-world roots and canned-food association have lent it an undesirable aura. But I have hope for sauerkraut's status. |
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Madison farmers' markets offer prepared food made with local ingredients
on 08/21/09 at 9:00 am | Life got a little easier for locavores this year, what with the growing selection of prepared foods available at area farmers' markets. Products like jarred pesto and salsa have long been a boon to busy "buy local" cooks, but this season there's a new twist: a growing number of ready-to-heat-or-eat frozen and fresh foods, made with regional ingredients. |
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Summer stew recipes
on 07/24/09 at 9:00 am | It's a culinary given that crops that ripen at the same time in the field inherently go together in the kitchen. Cooks pair certain ones like peas and lettuce in spring, or leeks and potatoes in fall, to produce classic seasonal dishes. During the superabundance of July and August the combos can get more creative and complex -- we plate up a mosaic of grilled summer vegetables, for instance, or compose a multi-layered salad. |
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Cooking from the Heart chronicles Hmong cuisine in America
on 06/26/09 at 9:00 am | When people think about the immigrant influence on Wisconsin's culinary culture, typically it's Europeans of the late 19th century who come to mind (read: cheese, brats, beer). But myriad ethnic groups from both before and after that time have flavored the foodways of our region. Case in point: the Hmong, relatively recent arrivals whose remarkable heritage of gardening -- evident at area farmers' markets -- seasons regional menus with pea and squash vines, hon tsai tai, bitter melon and other traditional Asian vegetables. |
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Something fishy - Smoked Trout Hash recipe
on 05/29/09 at 9:00 am | Wisconsin's fish fry and fish boil have gained widespread recognition as regional specialties, but there are other, more unusual fish foodways that remain known largely to very local populations. Whitefish livers, which may seem an unlikely delicacy to many people, are greatly enjoyed by families who live near lakes Superior and Michigan, where the big, thick-fleshed fish thrive. |
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Watercress Salad with Grilled Hanger Steak recipe
on 04/24/09 at 9:00 am | There is near-frantic pleasure in eating watercress at this time of year -- it's green! It's fresh! It's not stew! Shoppers snap it up from vendors at the (newly reopened) outdoor Dane County Farmers' Market or find plump bunches in the produce sections of local grocery stores. Foragers cut fistfuls from the surface of small streams and coldwater springs. And people looking to add a little spice to their life include it in salads, soups, stir-fries and more. |
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Locavore Blue Cheese Pasta Toss recipe
on 03/27/09 at 9:00 am | It's scramble time for locavores. We're in the between-season -- the stretch that runs roughly from spring break to final exams, when winter is technically over but fresh, local produce is but a twinkle in Mother Nature's eye. We need "pantry pastas" -- noodle dishes that utilize bottled, canned, dried or frozen foods. |
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Winter delights: New products at the farmers' market
on 02/27/09 at 9:00 am | I was getting a haircut recently when I overheard a woman in the next chair talking about the farmers' market -- the indoor one held on Saturdays downtown at the Madison Senior Center. "I've never been there," she said. "I doubt there's much to buy -- maybe some meat, but that's about all." Poor woman, I probably startled her as I about leaped out of my salon cape to correct that misconception. |
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Leah Caplan's Wheat Berries & Black Beans recipe
on 01/23/09 at 9:00 am | One culinary upside to the economic downturn is the increased interest in grains. From amaranth to wild rice, they've always been an inexpensive way to eat healthy and hearty. Right now, when both money worries and winter feel particularly merciless, eating more grains can help keep you solvent and well fed. |
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Read it and eat
on 12/19/08 at 9:00 am | When I was a kid we never put up the holiday tree until Dec. 24. No doubt that seems absurdly late to people who string their porches with Christmas lights at the same time they're removing the Halloween ones. But I bet even those eager beavers have a few last-minute gifts to scramble for. Food books to the rescue. I can recommend the following, all published in 2008. |
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Inventive takes on turkey leftovers: spicy soup recipe
on 11/21/08 at 9:00 am | Thanksgiving is my hands-down favorite holiday. No gift-giving pressures. No nonstop frenzied commercialization. Lots of playtime with local ingredients. And yes, I even like the leftovers. In fact, I probably look forward to the bird carcass more than any other aspect of Turkey Day. It's all that potential: turkey tetrazzini, turkey enchiladas, turkey almond salad, turkey wild rice bake. |
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The new art of dining in
on 10/24/08 at 9:00 am | Take one empty-nester librarian with a talent for cooking. Add a creative streak and a penchant for sustainable agriculture. Stir in an investment property on the east side, and what do you get? The School Woods Supper Club. |
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Beet and Kohlrabi Latkes with Horseradish Sour Cream recipe
on 09/26/08 at 9:00 am | Deny it all you want, but it's official: Summer's over. Autumn is here. Say goodbye to tomatoes and basil; say hello to potatoes and cabbage. |
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Area carrot eaten by area man!
on 08/29/08 at 9:00 am | Earlier this month while at a family reunion in Green Bay, I got into a stimulating discussion about contemporary food matters. (Yes, believe it or not, Brett the Jet wasn't the sole topic of conversation in Packerland this summer.) A young relative was knocking the popularity of sustainable foods with comments like, "You know the word 'organic' starts with the same letter as 'overpriced'" and "Buying local foods is a double standard. Do you buy clothes from local sources?" And the corker: "Eating local is just a fad." |
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Future fruit
on 08/01/08 at 9:00 am | I'm an urban forager, one of those loons who dig up dandelion greens in May and in October scrutinize parks for shaggy-bark trees in hopes of finding hickory nuts. In recent weeks, if you came across a riderless brown Schwinn lying near the Capitol City bike trail, with leaves rustling close by, that was me hidden in the foliage, plucking mulberries. |
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Strawberry (or Blueberry) Cheesecake Shake recipe
on 06/20/08 at 9:00 am | Novelist Wally Lamb once wrote: "Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love." Give some, too. Making milkshakes — or love — is a pleasurable endeavor with deliciously sweet results. And what a treat for a languid summer day. |
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Tokyo turnips and table radishes recipes
on 06/06/08 at 9:00 am | Table radishes and salad turnips are great in that venue; they're juicy, crisp, fresh-tasting nibbles that need nothing but sea salt or a zesty dressing to accent them. But they deserve more consideration than that. |
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Locavore pastoral
on 05/09/08 at 9:00 am | If news about the local foods movement seems to be everywhere these days, that's partly because so much of it is unfolding right before your eyes. Madison has the reputation as an epicenter of sustainable eating, a place where there's broad access to, and escalating support for, family farms and local fare. |
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Garlic mustard is a weed, but it's tasty, too -- recipe for Garlic mustard-spinach pizza with caramelized onions, blue cheese and walnuts
on 04/11/08 at 9:00 am | Craving something green and healthy? After more than a hundred inches of the frozen white stuff this winter, it's no wonder Wisconsinites are lusting after fresh asparagus, spinach, green onions and ramps. Still, in the case of one springtime shoot, be careful what you wish for. I'm talking about garlic mustard, the invasive transplant from Europe that thrives in the shaded woodlands of southern Wisconsin |
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Making the grade
on 03/14/08 at 10:00 am | Grade A is better than Grade B, right? When it comes to maple syrup, not necessarily. That's because grading for maple syrup is based on color, not flavor or quality. |
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Campus cuisine
on 02/15/08 at 9:13 am | The teaching kitchen in UW's Human Ecology building isn't as busy as it once was, back when the department was known as home economics and cooking classes were a regular part of the curriculum. But with gastronomy gaining new respect these days, the room's stoves and workstations have been seeing some action again. One professor I know, for example, uses the facility to add a culinary component to his course on food, society and culture, and last week at an event I attended there, participants learned about the history, technique and gustatory pleasures of Chinese New Year dumplings. |
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Breakfast and beyond
on 01/18/08 at 10:00 am | The first two Dane County Farmers' Market breakfasts of the year confirmed that the weekly event is meeting its objectives. Among the goals set five years ago, when the Taste of the Market meals began, were to showcase a range of local crops, farmers, and cooks (check); create a community-wide social gathering around good food (check); and teach shoppers how to utilize the bounty (check). |
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Celebrate the season with tamales - Tamales de Pollo recipe
on 12/21/07 at 10:00 am | Wisconsin's culinary diversity is never more apparent than during the holidays, when families enjoy the foods of their ethnic past. Yet heritage recipes can be elaborate affairs; they're brought out only for special occasions in part because they're painstaking to prepare. |
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Books for foodies
on 11/21/07 at 10:00 am | Last week at a gathering I told some new acquaintances about a book club I'm in, a group that discusses cookbooks and other food literature. "But what kind of 'food literature' is there besides cookbooks?" one of them asked. I was reminded that, unlike the eat-seeking gastronomy addicts in my reading circle, not everyone knows how jammed library catalogs are these days with titles on food history, food politics, food fiction, food humor, food art and food memoir (not to mention actual recipe collections supplemented with the aforementioned). |
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Smashing pumpkins - Spinach Pumpkin Lasagna recipe
on 10/26/07 at 10:00 am | I get a kick out of newspaper photos of contest-winning pumpkins. Selected for their weight, the squash are typically the size and shape of stuffed furniture. They're fun to look at, but you wouldn't want to have to cut one up in your kitchen. Porch displays of giant jack-o'-lanterns are a hoot, too, but I line my own steps with pie pumpkins, the little, darker ones that are bred for their taste, not girth. That way, after Halloween is over, I can make pumpkin puree. |
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Kale crisps are leaner, greener and utterly delicious - Kale crisps recipe
on 09/27/07 at 10:56 am |
At first glance, kale doesn't have much going for it. It's a headless brassica, one in a group known as Old World cabbages that medieval serfs cooked to a mush and downed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mature kale has tough, gray-green leaves and, if you're not careful, it can gain King Kong-like girth and terrorize your garden. Northern Europeans go for it in a big way, but seven out of ten Americans surveyed would rather eat live flies than kale.
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100 miles
on 08/31/07 at 10:00 am | As the daughter and son-in-law of the Dane County Farmers' Market manager, Jen and Scott Lynch know a few things about eating local. Besides weekly visits to the market, they keep a small garden, glean (with permission) from neighborhood apple trees and grapevines, and barter for local ingredients with bread baked in their wood-fired oven. |
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