ludja

There was an article in this weekend's Wall Street Journal by Eric Felton about Austrian alpine liqueurs in which he discusses the Cream Pear Liqueur from Austria called "Lauria" as well as the Austrian Zirbenze Stone Pine Liqueur discussed in this thread. I was mailed the link by a subscriber so I'm not sure if it will work for others or for how long: click It is an interesting article worth seeking out if you have some means to read it. The cited article gives a cocktail recipe for using Lauria as well: K-2 3 oz Lauria kletzenlikör 1 oz Cointreau 1 oz coffee liqueur Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. (You won't find the word "Kletzen" in a typical English-German dictionaly, but "Kletzenbrot" is an Austrian fruitcake/bread made from dried pears.)

A nice interview with Pollan with Terry Gross on Fresh Air today can be heard here. I missed the first half hour but will try to catch the rest of it later. Among some of the interesting examples he gave was of the ability to buy grass fed beef from both the Union Sq Market in NYC and from the Whole Foods that is also now located on Union Sq. The beef at Whole Foods is shipped all the way from New Zealand while the beef purchased at Union Sq Market was from a Hudson Valley Farm. A second story gives another take on "buyer beware" or perhaps " buyer be aware" in understanding what it can mean or not to purchase something labeled as organic. He desribes a visit to a Northen California organic chicken farm. The chickens live for a total of seven weeks and are raised in a giant chicken 'coop' that is the length of a foodtball field and which houses 20,000 chickens. They are kept in the coop and are fed organic feed for 5 weeks. At the end of 5 weeks small door is opened at each end of the coop with a ramp leading down to a narrow garden of green grass. Apparently having the ability to 'free range' for the last two weeks of their life is one of the qualifications for organic and free range. He says that almost no chickens venture out of the coop as they have only known being in the coop for the first five weeks of their life. He brings up the concept of "beyond organic". This concept has been brought up by others previoslly on eGullet and might include farmers of fruits, vegetables and animals that might not fulfill every letter of government legislation in order to qualify for an organic certification label but might, in fact, be much more honest overall in trying to create a healthier or more sustaintable product. Although he gives no overarching conclusions in the interview, apperently his research in writing this book has led him to think that buying locally and seasonally as much as possible might be one of the strongest ways to maximize the benefit to cost ratio. He spoke of the concept of cost including not just the sticker price but also the ecological and health costs and he did this in a pretty specific rather than fuzzy, political or romantic manner. He felt that by buying locally you could really have an impact on maintaining green belts and farms closer to the places where one lives. (These benefits are in addition to reducing shipping costs, environmental impacts and presumably also getting a fresher and better product.) The discussion on corn and the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup is one that many are already aware of, but he also had a good discussion on some of the effects the dominance of subsidized corn has on many aspects of the food chain including the raising of animals for meat. (In brief, since it is now apparently cheaper to feed animals purchased, subsidized corn rather than growing the food on the same farm to feed the animals, the practice has emerged to completely separate the rasing of animals from the growing of food. In this case, nitrogen-rich fertizlier produced from the animals becomes an environmental hazard rather than being used, as previously, in place of petroleum-based fertizers.) They did speak about potential economic "elitism" in buying organic and even local food. That is, that many people can not afford to look beyond the sticker price in makiing decisions to maximize the amount of calories they can buy for a set amount of money. No easy solutions, and perhaps there is more discussion in his book, but he seemed to feel that steps could be taken to reduce the price disparity between processed foods subsidized in large part by low cost corn and soy bean so that fresh fruit and vegetables could compete. (Still no solution for people who feel too busy to cook unprocessed food, but that is another issue.) The interview has spurred my incentive to read his book. I think he would be a interesting choice for an eGullet Q&A. (The book has just been released so perhaps it would be nicer to schedule this after the book has been out for awhile. giving people a chance to read it first.) We have had many discussions on these and related topics on eGullet. This could be a good opportunity to interact with someone who has devoted some time to studying this topic. And in case anyone wants to explore buying locally beyond their farmer's markets, here is the link to the website for Local Harvest which has a great geographical listing of community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms in the U.S.: click

The cauliflower and lobster dish sounds divine. I've had two very nice rieslings from Brundlmayer. I can imagine that it paired very well with the dish. Gorgeous photos, guys.

Along lines similar to what jmcgrath and mizducky have already suggested, another way is to look at websites of local farms that have community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Many of them have great websites that highlight what is available locally through the seasons. Local Harvest has a great website that allows you to search for CSA's and small farms in your geographical area within the U.S.

I'm positive I wouldn't have searched to see if that had been discussed before either!

Interesting history, Daniel. Thank you very much for sharing it.

What were the proposed starters? Do they choose a "winner" for each course as the show goes along or is the final menu decided at the end?

I take it to mean retirement from official managing and hosting duties which would take much more time than just posting. Thank you for your stewardship of the NJ board, Rosie. Good luck in any new ventures, and I hope you and other retirees continue to post when you have time!

Your post reminded me of a previous topic on this same vexing question. Pink Pastry Boxes... Why?

Nice report. The asparagus salad does look and sound wonderful. Was the shaved asparagus raw do you think? If you were trying to reproduce this at home, what would you try? (This sounds like a wonderful Easter dinner course...)

Thank you for pointing this book out. While it may or may not provide easy answers it sounds like it provides a lot of information. I"m interested to read about the ubiquity of corn in many products and also to learn more about what organic can mean in a labeled foodstuff. We've touched on the latter issue in several eGullet threads but I would like to understand more on this topic. According to Amazon, it looks like the book will be released this week.

This is a very light and moist cake--Bill Neal's Huguenot Torte. The batter has chopped up apples, finely ground pecans and whipped eggs. This linked recipe of his posted online as an excerpt from a recent book "Remembering Bill Neal" is slightly different from the excellent version I can vouch for from "Bill Neal's Southern Cooking". The version I've made uses three eggs rather than two eggs. This cake was one of the signature desserts at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill when Bill Neal was still alive. click

Some other recipes in previous threads to peruse: click old world apple cake recipes I still haven't tried any of redsugar's recipes in the second thread. They look like some wonderful recipes.

I don't have a recipe, but I've seen interesting allusions in some different places to a Mark Miller (Coyote Cafe) recipe. He puts cut up fresh pineapple in a big jar with rum(s) and vanilla bean. Let that steep for awhile and then use for either sipping or for making pineapple daquiris. Sounds good to me...

What type of liqueur or schnapps is "kriechel"?

There was an article in this weekend's Wall Street Journal by Eric Felton about Austrian alpine liqueurs in which he discusses the Zirbenze Stone Pine Liqueur and the Lauria. I was mailed the link by a subscriber so I'm not sure if it will work for others or for how long: click It is an interesting article worth seeking out if you have some means to read it. He also gives a recipe for making a cocktail with the liqueur: SAIZBURG COCKTAIL 1 oz Zirbenz 1 oz gin 1/4 oz simple (sugar syrup) Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel. The article also speaks of the importer, Eric Seed. Much of the article is devoted to the Lauria Alpine Cream Liqueur that Friend of the Farmer mentions above: (You won't find the word "Kletzen" in a typical English-German dictionaly, but "Kletzenbrot" is an Austrian fruitcake/bread made from dried pears.) The article also gives the website for New York's Astor Wines and Spirits that Friend of the Farmer mentioned above(www.astorwines.com) and says that they will ship Zirbenz to many states.

Thank you for the great instructions, MamaC. (Kool Aid is a great idea for coloring and funny to think of another staining use than childrens's clothes and mouths...) When I was looking for some additional recipes for Osterpinze I found this site that has a great listing of different traditional Easter breads and recipes from around the world: click

Thank you ludja, Yes that is the method, but used the whole leg from the stockings, wraping 5-6 eggs on one. I used KoolAid to dye the eggs in the picture above. ←

I posted this in the Friuli-Venezia Guilia thread but thought the recipe links would also be of interest here: (I've made the Austrian version of this Easter Bread and it is very delcious with sweet butter.)

Although I wasn't able to cook along this time, this will be a thread I come back to. Thanks for everyone's contributions so far. I was researching an Austrian Easter Bread/Bun called "Osterpinzer" and came across an interesting discovery, namely that there is an Easter bread from the Istrian and Veneto region with a very similar name, "Pinza". The recipes look very similar too. I ran across a recipe from Lidia on-line from her book, "Lidia's Italian Table". Here it is: click In her book she says it is a precursor to the Italian pannetone and colomba cakes but she doesn't shed any light on whether it originally came from more northern climes like Austria or vice versa. Here is another Istrian link with some Pinza recipes that I ran across: Pinza Easter Bread . The Austrian and Italian versions are both cut in the same manner as well before baking, with deep slashes that make an open flower type pattern on top of the baked bun or loaf. This type of bread, is I think, typical in style with that of several central and eastern European countries at Eastertime, but I thought it was interesting that the names were so related in this case.

Two good general resources for Italian Easter Baking and Desserts: Carol Field’s “Celebrating Italy: Tastes & Traditions of Italy as Revealed Through Its Feasts, Festivals & Sumptuous Foods” click Nick Malgieri’s “Great Italian Desserts” click

I can appreciate that time must be of the extreme essence in many cases, especially for small restaurants and businesses. The sooner people go down there to help, visit and spend money the better. If people want to visit New Orleans, they should fight any reticence in delaying a trip. Thank you for also sharing the trip here on eGullet, Rachel.

Does anyone know of any French traditions? I'm familiar with some traditional French pastries and cakes from other parts of the liturgical calendar but have never heard of any French Easter baked goods. Mexico? Other parts of Latin America? The Philippines? Spain? I mentioned in the previous thread that my own Austrian tradition passed down in my family is to make a “Susses Milchbrot” or “Sweet Milk Bread” (flavored with lemon zest and raisins) in the shape of a round loaf or braid. (Now that I’m armed and dangerous with a digital camera I should take a photo this year.). During the course of my reading, I’ve learned about another Austrian Easter bread called “Osterpinze”. I think the bread is similar in many ways to the other loaf (rich bread with butter, eggs and milk and flavored with lemon and/or orange) that I make above although it is apparently sometimes also flavored with anise and is often baked as buns, in a distinctive shape. click I found a recipe in English for Osterpinzer Austrian Easter Buns here .

There is a charming website (but in German): Bommerlunder According to their description, the schnapps has a "geringe Hauch vom Kuemmel" or a ‘slight breath of caraway’. Apparently there are "Bommerlunder Gold" and "Bommerlunder Pflaume" (plum) as well. edited to add: Welcome to eGullet, kai_o!

There is a new thread in Pastry and Baking here that continues the discussion on regional Easter pastries, cakes and breads around the world.