barbecue in NYC.

Real Barbecue in New York City

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Barbecue, Cast Iron Pan, Drinkin' and Dronin', John T. Edge, Southern Foodways Alliance, warren bobrow, wild river review, Wild Table, WRR, www.wildriverreview.com — jstocke @ 11:39 pm

Ribs

John T. Edge, cultural raconteur, historian and potlikker drinker is on the road again.  This time he is in town, if only for a short while to show a few of his home movies, Southern Foodways Alliance style.  Edge holds a master’s degree in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi. He is also a director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, where he documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South. The SFA has completed more than 450 oral histories and 20 films, focusing on the likes of fried chicken cooks, row crop farmers, oystermen, and bartenders. John has been featured in Saveur Magazine, writes a monthly column for the New York Times and is an editor of Garden and Gun Magazine (which is sort of the Martha Stewart Living magazine of the NEW South, pumped up on buckets of barbecue fueled steroids)  He writes about food, culture and bourbon fueled dreams.  Each year, for the past eight years, JT makes his way up to NYC to participate in the Barbecue Block Party.   The Barbecue Block party is a raucous affair.  Fifteen Pit Masters from all over the South gather together to share their pecan wood fired dreams of perfect barbecue with several thousand, very hungry and grateful New Yorkers.

Ole' Smoky

Barbecue Block Party Scene

The Barbecue Circus comes to NYC!  What is barbecue?  Well for one thing, it’s all about that darned wood.  The right tree makes the right charcoal.  Ah, what kind of trees make good charcoal?  I’ll tell you that Hickory makes darned fine barbecue charcoal, as does Pecan and of course good ole’ American Oak.  That tree must be old.  Standing dead is what I was taught.  I heat partially by wood, so I know what that means.  Standing dead means dry fire wood.  Good wood for burning.  Soft wood like pine makes your barbecue taste like the insides of an old pine box, if you were to lick it.  I wouldn’t, nor should you, splinters y’all know come from wood.  Good barbecue is all about the wood. You can’t make barbecue over gas heat.  Low and slow is what the pit masters call it.  I call this food love in a cast iron kettle.  Call it what you will- you must cook it long, and cook it at low temperatures. Do not use a gasoline based starter either or your barbecue will taste like a can of gas.

Ribs!!!

The best barbecue is?  Well that’s up to you.  Some people like beef brisket, others like my friend Eddie O. in Vancouver, BC loves barbecued salmon.  I demand the skin of the Wild Alaskan Salmon, grilled until crunchy and crispy, napped in a touch of vinegar and mustard. It’s the Pacific Northwest meets the old South.
I always have enjoyed barbecue in Columbia, South Carolina.  Mustard and vinegar makes a fine barbecue sauce for grilled salmon or a rack of ribs, your choice, beef or pork.
Recipe:  Mustard Vinegar Barbecue Sauce
1 cup of French’s Yellow Mustard
3 Tablespoons of Brown or Cane Sugar
1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon each of Black Pepper, Salt and Cayenne Pepper
Mix together and let sit a while at room temp.  Use on pork or chicken.
Always when using this sauce cook off the direct flame.  The sugar will burn up faster than a fox finding some plump chickens in the hen house.

John T. Edge, always the gentleman.

John T. Edge wrote me a short note thanking me for sending him this photograph.  He called me Sir.  Not in a presumptuous way, but in the quiet way of a real gentleman.  A Southern Gentleman.
Thank you John for infusing my writing with your wisps of hickory smoke.
John: I promise you a glass of 1950’s era Bourbon should our paths cross this way again… Up here in Yankee-land there still is fine Bourbon to share amongst friends.  Especially those who share interests of Potlikker.  Estelle Ellis taught me to make potlikker.  She used real Country ham from Smithfield.  This was the base of the concoction.  Some use potlikker to stave off a cold or heal a sour stomach.  Whatever your use is, potlikker is a great way to start your day with the taste of collard greens, earth and pig.
Potlikker

4 pounds turnip or collard greens ground black pepper, a bunch of it. 1/4 pound Smithfield Ham or Fatback Sugar, just to taste- Now some Southerners will rue the day that I add a bit of sugar, but really- it just balances the greens and the vinegar that is usually poured over the top to finish. Preparation: Rinse those greens at least 5 times if not six times or more if gritty. Put them in a large pot of boiling water and boil for 3 minutes. Drain, tossing out  the water to remove the bitter taste. Fill the pot again with fresh sweet spring water and bring to a slow boil. Place the greens back in the pot. Add some Country Ham to the pot. Cover, turn down to a simmer, and cook 3 – 4 hours. Taste and add sugar and pepper as desired. Adjust seasoning with a bit of cayenne pepper. Serve greens with their juices or serve “pot likker” separately as an inexpensive meal with freshly made cornbread. Our first cocktail of the night at the Potlikker Film Festival was a shot glass full of potlikker!

Pig Ears

Pig ears used to cost 5 bucks a box.  Now they cost 50 bucks.  Why?  The pet food industry buys them all up for dog treats.  Damn, those country dawgs sure love pigs ears, as do I.  Cooked long and slow in a Dutch Oven, pig’s ears are certainly not for the meek.  Slivered into threads and quickly pan seared then fried- this is true Head to Tail cooking.
Pig’s Ears

Ingredients

A few pig’s ears
1 onion, cut up and skinned
1 carrot, washed well
1 Bunch of Celery
Some garden herbs like thyme and oregano or whatever you’ve got.
Approximately 1 tablespoon salt and a scant tablespoon of hot pepper flakes
Freshly cracked pepper to taste

Fixin’ to enjoy some pig’s ears

1. Bring bunch of water to boil. Place the pig’s ears in the water and par-boil for a few minutes to remove any dirt.  Throw out that water, it’s nasty looking and tasting.
2. Remove the pig’s ears from the water and add them to a medium cast iron Dutch Oven.  Add enough water to cover. Add the onion, carrot, and aromatics, and bring the Dutch Oven to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 hours, occasionally checking to see that the ears are immersed in the water. The ears will be very soft–a fork should easily pierce through the skin. This is not pretty to look at, nor will they win you any awards right now.  But be patient, one bite and you’ll never eat pork belly again!
3. Let the ears cool for a while.  Save some of this stock and freeze it for another use.  It’s full of Piggy goodness.
Heat a Cast Iron Griddle to smokin’ hot.
4. Sear that ear, turn and sear it again.  It will smoke mightily, make sure the hood fan is on BEFORE you start cooking.
5. Serve immediately, like steak, for the diners to cut and eat on the plate. Serve with the Columbia, South Carolina Barbecue Sauce.
Hungry for ears?  This is so easy to make.  Serve with some Firefly Sweet Tea.  (Vodka and Sweet Tea mixed together, after a few, you’ll swear you see Fireflies!)

This one over here is the Mutton Barbecue

Baker's Ribs

Chutzpah Magazine � Blog Archive � Modern, Hip and Delicious, Zahav charms for: One Night in Morocco

Chutzpah Magazine � Blog Archive � Modern, Hip and Delicious, Zahav charms for: One Night in Morocco

Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast - -- --- Choying Drolma and Steve Tibbetts -- Yumchen Tukar -- Selwa (2004) --- -- -

Sleepbot Environmental Broadcast - -- --- Choying Drolma and Steve Tibbetts -- Yumchen Tukar -- Selwa (2004) --- -- -

# 30 in Saveur Magazine's 100 for 2010!

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Tuna-Melt-1000079473

joystocke @ 7:14 am

by Warren Bobrow

Not a real Tuna Melt. It is the dreaded HOT TUNA! Photo: Warren Bobrow

An abridged history of the Tuna Melt:

Charleston, South Carolina. About 1965. Woolworth’s lunch counter on King Street. The air is thick with the smell of tea being brewed for the large glass containers that sit atop ceramic dispensers. Inside the containers are chunks of rough-cut ice, fresh mint and golden brown-colored tea.

One container says simply, Sweet. As quickly as a glass is filled, it is emptied by thirsty passers-by. All of King Street finds their way in for a cup. Sweet Tea is the most popular drink on a day like today.

It’s July and hamburgers are sizzling away on the sleek metal of the grill. The sun seems to rise low in the sky earlier and set later, extending the heat and mud-scented humidity from the tidal confluence of Ashley and Cooper Rivers.

Behind the counter, the ladies work at their prescribed tasks. Send a Tuna on White over there, cup of Tomato Soup to the end of the counter! Macaroni and Cheese with a Fish Cake? Side of Slaw!

Chef Bo is greeted; orders given. “Sweet tea! I‘ll have a grilled cheese sandwich, white bread with a smear of mayo and slices of American cheese, “just as you like it.” Atop the griddle on a shelf, a bowl of freshly made tuna salad sits on the edge… and, as if guided by a hidden hand, the contents tip over, falling on the grilled cheese sandwich.

Voila! The Tuna Melt is born!

About the same time as the tuna salad falls onto the grill, Bo notices it bubbling away along with his open-faced grilled cheese. Some of the tuna has coated the top. The smell is familiar to him. The metallic tang of nearby sweet southern ocean air, the syrupy caramelized smell of mayo combining and dripping on celery and onion sinking into the butter and mayo-coated white bread. And on top, becoming crisp and sealing in all the flavors… that errant dollop of tuna!

One of the gals from behind the counter offers to make him another one, ’cause he might not want to eat the mistake!”

Tucking in-carefully at first, then with fervor – time and history make way for a new sandwich, a new invention. Pursing his lips and sipping the sweet tea Bo has no idea that he has invented the Tuna Melt.

Soon, thereafter, the Tuna Melt became a favorite at the Woolworth’s lunch counter on King Street in Charleston, South Carolina. It was almost always served with a glass of sweet Iced Tea and a side of Lay’s potato chips.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/The-2010-SAVEUR-100-List

Wild River Review contributing editor, Warren Bobrow grew up on a farm in Morristown, NJ. A graduate of Emerson College with a degree in Film, he spent his senior year as a research assistant in visual thinking at CAVS / MIT. He worked for many years in the corporate world.His column on food, wine and life, Wild Table appears daily in the online magazine, Wild River Review. In addition to Wild River Review, Warren writes for NJMYWay.com, NJ Life Magazine, NJ Monthly and SLOWFOODNNJ.org. He has upcoming work in Edible Jersey Magazine on the topic of Organic and Biodynamic wine and upcoming submissions for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Ed., 2. Warren is featured in Saveur Magazine’s 2010-100 best list. #30. February brings an article to NJ Savvy Living. Please follow his moving about and drinkin’ ’round on Twitter @WarrenBobrow1 or on Plaxo.

Trust your instincts and cook with passion!

You can support Warren’s work on Wild River Review, and his column, Wild Table by making a donation: Wild River Review, PO Box 53, Stockton, NJ 08559. Wild River Review is an international website and 501c3 non-profit organization so your donation may be tax deductible.
Please put Wild Bite in the subject line. Thank you!

Blue Hill/Stone Barns: Time Exists in Harmony with Nature

I might have been near Normandy in France the way the road opened in front of me with those stone barns set off the lane in the background. Several baby lambs ran beside my car and older sheep chewing calmly dotted the fields. It seemed everything on this farm worked in a specific meter. Each person I met was charged with a task of some kind, which they performed with a purpose, yet a smile at every turn was shared immediately and with meaning. It was a simple lesson in customer awareness, which enriched the scene.

Stone Barns, restored and in a sense re-created as they were 100 years prior in another time…. the drive through leafy forest north of here about an about an hour or a bit more, winding my way off the usual superhighway 287 route…the well beaten path of (old route) 9w through exclusive Alpine, NJ and across the Tappan Zee bridge from Morristown to Pocantico Hills.

The founder of Standard Oil built this living enterprise at one time with no cares as to how expensive or how to skimp on materials-this place for built to endure for centuries… now it is wistfully and lovingly recreated by Chef Dan Barber and team; who to my great delight was tromping across… (With several producers and video cameras in tow) a 50 or so acre-rolling field dotted with the mobile cages of the free ranging chickens. I happened to be walking the estate in the gathering mist and came upon a very animated but soft-spoken man, with time to spend teaching his craft to others… and being videotaped at the same time for some television event in the future. It was completely unscripted and he spoke using his hands for emphasis. He was classically dressed as a gentleman chef/farmer in crisply starched chef whites, white apron and euro-clogs.

I had transcended the decades and was standing about 50 yards away-not hearing his words-only seeing him point softly, calmly, in a gentle fashion at the food raised all around me. Cows patiently waited-sheep ate-goats burrowed and pigs slept the day away. Chickens slept.

Meanwhile, nearby…..

The on site abattoir takes care of the nasty business of slaughtering- but this place, known for the “farm to table” approach to the craft of food-is disguised by few windows and few doors. You cannot see what goes on within, but I cannot imagine a fresher approach to dining.

Surrounding the abattoir, free ranging bird pens were filled with ancient varieties of edible birds, geese, turkey, chickens and ducks- which existed on grasses, and vegetarian grains almost hand fed by a swarm of young, eager farm workers… surrounded by pure soil and a constant variety of free-ranging insects who wander into the cages-then are hungrily devoured by the hungry, waiting birds. This variety shown above seems to have few feathers.. I imagined an "innner zip tab" engineered by ancestors long departed into the breasts for easy removal of all feathers. Chef Barber was pointing out to some young Berkshire Pigs who were napping-blissfully unaware of the restaurant “Blue Hill Stone Barns” just beyond a quiet knoll surrounded by a small pond.

They seemed to be smiling-perhaps they dreamt of warm days in the future there on this sustainable farm, their home and not of the sum of their parts which will grace someone’s farmers feast dinner later in the season?

I continued down the road and came upon the greenhouses. Over 1/2 acre under cover with roof panels which open with the time of day.

Tonight’s salad at Blue Hill was still in the ground.

Several female college students were snacking on a salad of Mache, chervil and faro grains with goat cheese made fresh daily from the farm. A young commis cook from the restaurant was charming them with some freshly picked greens, quickly prepared and served. I wanted to photograph them, but didn’t want to disturb their sense of discovery… The fog took over and I continued back to the front door of Blue Hill. But it was locked!

To my chagrin- Blue Hill/Stone Barns are closed at Lunch, unless it is a Sunday, but this was during the week… So-I enjoyed a visit to their well-appointed cafe. It reminded me a rurally set Chez Panisse. Friendly, smiling college aged girls and guys worked the steaming, spotless espresso machine. The foods were all self-serve, Tuna in water from Italy with chervil served on whole grains with a sprinkling of garden greens, a Frittata of local ramps and farm-made goat cheese-Sweets from classic breakfast treats to more succinct, yet humorous granola made on the farm with local dried berries and nuts, fresh yoghurt, milk from local farms and farm-made goat cheese filled the refrigerator cases-carefully chosen juices and seltzers-strawberry milk, chocolate milk and grand cups of steaming lattes…
… I helped myself to a lovely egg salad sandwich-composed of the day’s fresh eggs from the farm, capers, a simple garlic mayonnaise and then gently spooned over a warm slice of open faced chibatta bread from the estate’s bakery. Although a fine mist flew in my eyes-the energy of the place warmed me deeply. I enjoyed a tall glass of Ronnybrook Farms Chocolate Milk and photographed my lunch as it sat on the long wooden tables in my mind’s eye.

There were preserves to be sampled, made freshly on the farm. I chose an Apricot Jam and a Quince Preserve. Quince is meant to be cooked with, baked into a cheesecake of goat cheese and flaky crust. Not a sweet, but a savory.

The apricot jam made me think of iced summer wines from the Basque region of Spain, the softest bubbly nose…the flavors of stone fruits, some of those roasted apricots; marcona almonds coated in sea salt and drenched in fine olive oil…. the terroir from the soil. Deep in the earth-powerful salty flavors from the fogs, which hang over the ancient vineyards, fresh anchovies caught minutes before and then grilled over hardwood and sherry wine vinegar. Olives freshly crushed until they are a soft paste with garlic and anchovy more olive oil, grey salt and rosemary from the tree over there…. served with good charred country bread.

Creativity is easy to find when surrounded by deliberate provisions.

Lunch was a feeling of contentment. All that was missing was that plate of freshly grilled Anchovies right out of the sea and a glass of Spanish Txomin from the Basque Country to wash it all down.

Paul Bocuse once said-serve great bread and everything is possible.

Alphabeet Soup: Ukrainian style Borscht

Alphabeet Soup: Ukrainian style Borscht

Billy Reid (From Wild Culture)

October 22, 2009

Wild Culture

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Bacon, Bespoke Clothing, Billy Reid, Bond Street, Bourbon, Drinkin' and Dronin', Kentucky, Live Music, Mint, NYC, Old Bourbon, Oxford American Magzine, Root, South Carolina, Southern Foodways Alliance, warren bobrow, wild river review, Wild Table, www.wildriverreview.com — jstocke @ 8:51 am

A Bucket o'PBR's at Billy Reid. Photo: Warren Bobrow

1-Year Anniversary of Billy Reid

Has it been a year? My discovery of Billy Reid has given me a new way of dressing, in keeping with the spirit of my “look” over the years. From the moment I walked into the shop on Bond Street in New York City, I felt something familiar. My wife and I shopped in the neighborhood and we stumbled in. There was an article in the New York Times waxing poetic about bespoke Southern Clothing and I am constantly intrigued to find that Kentucky bourbon and hand sewn bespoke clothing makes for a good conversation. Perhaps it is the casual elegance of the clothing. Maybe the music playing puts me in a good place. Then there is the sales help. I’ve always been spoken with, not spoken at. This is a good Zen exercise on manners if there is anything that a person can learn about great service.

Then there is the Bourbon. Great Kentucky bourbon can be offered to you if you know the secret code. There is a lesson to be learned regarding a glass of brown. That lesson is the art of listening for the queue. The secret code is somewhere between the actual word meaning, “yes, I’d enjoy a glass”… and that knowing smile…one that comes with a steady hand and quick wit. This is the Southern way of thinking. Offer a glass and reap the rewards. A new friendship is born!

Billy Reid-Photo: Warren Bobrow

You don’t know what I’m talking about? Then Billy Reid is not the store for you. With their 1-Year Anniversary on my mind, having the chance to enjoy a brown cocktail seems very friendly. Too bad the last few nights freezing weather killed off most of the mint. I’ll bet in a few days of warm weather, some sweet sprouts will pop up and a fine mint and bourbon cocktail will be offered up. If not, there is always Fee Brothers Mint Bitters- used only in very small drops!

Southern Gentility/Billy Reid Photo: Warren Bobrow

Billy Reid’s clothing embodies a deeply Southern sensibility. Inside every person who wears this clothing there exists a good old boy (or gal) who is “fixin’ to get some barbeque” from a restaurant like Skeets in Darlington, SC. This is pit style meat. Cooked low and slow. I once drove all the way from Charleston for Barbeque at Skeets. This was before Hugo. When I called asking for directions- the kind person on the phone said: “When you smell Hog, you’re almost there.” That in itself is the metaphor for good cookin’ and fine eatin’. So in the spirit of the 1st anniversary of Billy Reid’s store on Bond Street in NYC, grab yourself a tall-boy PBR or a short glass of Brown and drink in the smell of Pit Barbeque, which just may be on the menu tonight.

You need the right music to get all y’all’s in the mood. A bit of Vassar Clements is in order:

Magnolia Springfest, Live Oak, Florida 03/24/00 www.archive.org

Wild River Review contributing editor, Warren Bobrow grew up on a farm in Morristown, NJ. A graduate of Emerson College with a degree in Film, he spent his senior year as a research assistant in visual thinking at The Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. He worked for many years in the corporate world.

His column, Wild Snack, appears every Wednesday on WRR@Large. His daily eMag; Wild Table is now available. In addition to Wild River Review, Warren writes for NJMYWay.com and SLOWFOODNNJ.org. He has upcoming work in Edible Jersey Magazine on the topic of Organic and Biodynamic Wine and upcoming submissions for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Ed., 2. February brings an article to NJ Savvy Living. Please follow his moving about and drinkin’ ’round on Twitter @ jockeyhollow.

Trust your instincts and cook with passion!

You can support Warren’s work on Wild River Review, and his column, Wild Table by making a donation: Wild River Review, PO Box 53, Stockton, NJ 08559. Wild River Review is an international website and 501c3 non-profit organization so your donation may be tax deductible.
Please put Wild Bite in the subject line. Thank