Why not add some spice to your holiday list?
Nothing pleases a gourmet more than avoiding the McSpice found in the grocery stores and instead using an exotic spice or herb. One of my favorite places in Seattle is World Spice by Pike Place Market. Spices are sold by weight and packed in bags (glass jars are backordered). Some of the best spices are the curry blends: Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Kashmiri, and the popular Madras with coriander, cassia, cardamom, cumin, brown mustard, ginger, fenugreek, turmeric, tellicherry black pepper and India red chile. For those who like it hot, try the chile blends, such as the New Mexican chile powder with Hungarian paprika, New Mexican red and guajillo chilies, black pepper, onion and garlic powder, or the smoky chipotle chili powder. Or get salty with their salt selection, which includes fleur de sal from Brittany France, red alae from Hawaii, Korean white from that country’s southern coast, or black salt from India. The best way to order from World Spice is online: www.worldspice.com. Cash or check only.
A must for the bundt baker in your life — or any baker for that matter — is the new food-quality, FDA approved, silicone bakeware (Kitchen Zone, by Silicone Zone, $15-plus). For the past few years, silicone pastry mats have been flying off the shelves; now, Sur la Table has a display full of loaf, muffin and bundt silicone forms in various colors. This bakeware can go from the freezer to the oven or microwave, and is dishwasher safe. No more knife around the side of a bundt cake form hoping to release the cake in its entirety; these cakes just slip out. Many of these silicone forms have decorative tops that also remain intact once inverted. Because these silicone forms are flexible, they’re easy to store and take up less space.
Also for the baker is Fiesta Products’ Sil-Pin, a 12-inch heavy duty, non-stick silicone surface rolling pin with independent ball bearings for continuous pastry or cookie dough rolling. The handles are a cool zinc alloy. This pin may be found at Sur La Table in red for $49.95 or at Secret Ingredients (Jetton Village Shopping Center, 19825-B North Cove Road, Cornelius, 704-892-4646) in black pin for $39.95. Sil-Pin is also available online in gray, hot pink, tangerine, light blue, navy blue, yellow and white. See www.fiestaproducts.com.
Williams-Sonoma offers something new for the lovers of their Molted Chocolate Cake ($24, two for $40), which previously was only available online. Now both Charlotte area shops have it in-store in two flavors: the regular chocolate one and peppermint. This cake can also be baked in individual ramekins. Williams-Sonoma holiday ramekins are in the shape of a Christmas tree, candy cane, bell and melting snowman.
Rather than using an oven mitt, another silicone device that’s hot this year is the Hot Handle by Lamson & Goodnow ($5.50, Sur La Table). This handle cover is designed to slip over standard metal cookware handles, yet be slip resistant. The comfortable grip handle withstands heat up to 675 degrees F.
Tired of those melted or tomato stained spatulas? Le Creuset’s silicone spatula withstands up to 800 degrees F. It’s also stain resistant and sparkles like a fairy godmother’s wand. A clear and glittering spatula is about $11 at area kitchen shops.
My favorite peeler is the Messermeister Serrated Peeler ($5.50, Sur La Table), with its extremely sharp, serrated blade. This is the perfect kitchen tool to peel a peach or a tomato. Do you know a peach lover? This peeler will have the peaches for a cobbler peeled in seconds, with no waste. The cushy black rubber handle provides a comfortable, firm grip.
If your friend won’t move on from his/her “beer butt chicken” recipe (that’s the recipe calling for a chicken to straddle an open can of beer and then get baked), try the gentrified Dixie Chicken Cooker, a glazed pottery bakeware that looks like an angel food cake pan. The chicken is set upright on an open cone; liquid — beer or wine or broth — is poured into the center, then baked. It’s the same principal as the beer can, only better looking ($24.99, Secret Ingredients).
Or instead of beer cans, give the gift of a Moroccan Tagine. Sur La Table has a collection of Berber tagines, which are decorative and not meant for cooking, as well as tagines slaoui, which are the conical lid bakeware. A simple glazed terra cotta 13-inch tagine slaoui ($25) is safe for a cooktop (although gas burners require a disperser) or in the oven to 400 degrees F. Lid shapes vary according to the cultural preference in Morocco’s different regions. Some areas use a dome-shaped lid, while others have a vented lid. Pair a tagine with food writer Anissa Helou’s Cafe Morocco (McGraw Hill, 1999, $19.95), a cookbook that has dozens of tagine recipes and is appropriate for a novice taginer.
Gourmet magazine first found its way into America’s kitchens in 1941, shortly before rationing began during World War II. During the past 60 years, the magazine has had, at first, the reputation of including recipes that were too French and too difficult. However, anyone who has picked up the magazine recently recognizes the recipes have became less complex, less French and more egalitarian, and yet they still produce the same spectacular “Gosh, I made this?” results. The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 100 Recipes; Sixty Years in the Making (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), edited by Ruth Reichl, offers 21 chapters that include hundreds of desserts and vegetables, a hundred hors d’oeuvres, and pages of entree selections, some from renowned chefs. Editor Reichl, once the restaurant critic for the New York Times, confirms her impeccable taste with the recipes selected.
Have a restaurant tip, compliment, complaint? Do you know of a restaurant that has opened, closed, or should be reviewed? Does your restaurant or shop have news, menu changes, new additions to staff or building, upcoming cuisine or wine events? Note: We need events at least 12 days in advance. Fax information to Eaters’ Digest: 704-944-3605, or leave voice mail: 704-522-8334, ext. 136. To contact Tricia via email: tricia.childress@creativeloafing.com.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2004.
