eG Foodblog: Fat Guy (2010) - Goin' Mobile

[prasantrin]

Sarabeth's poppy seed scone recipe has already been published in Bon Appetit. It may be different from the one in the book (the BA recipe is from 1995), but for those who can't or don't want to wait for the PR department, it's readily available at the link.

[johnnyd]

I'm pleased with the thought that the Q&A's are returning along with the blogs. Any chance you could talk Sarabeth into doing one? At this rate it will be the eGCI coming back next!

Indeed. Food blogs are a major strength of eGullet, as are Q&As, and the forum is poorer without them. Bravo, Stephen, for bringing back an important tradition.

Coco Helado = iced coconut -or- coconut ice

[Fat Guy]

If you have never been on a media familiarization tour you simply must start an independent online publication in order to start collecting invitations.

Some people when they go on vacation like to sit around on the beach. Others like to get out and do stuff. If you favor the latter model, a press trip is like that vacation only better because you have the benefit of the inside track thanks to the local CVB or tourism commission, plus it's free and you may even get paid to write about it down the road (if not, there's always blogging).

At the moment I'm en route to LaGuardia airport to catch a Delta flight to Biloxi via Memphis. The flight is free but I'm responsible for getting myself to the airport. So in an attempt to avoid unnecessary expenditures I find myself at the corner of 125th Street and Amsterdam Avenue waiting for the M60 bus. In the course of making a villion stops and picking up various unsavory and/or strange characters in Queens this bus gets you to LaGuardia for only the cost of a Metrocard swipe (which if you have a monthly unlimited card is, at the margin, zero).

So anyway...we are about to enter the core phase of this eG Foodblog: a media tour of Mobile Bay with specific focus on the local seafood industry especially in light of the recent BP oil spill. But first I have to spend most of today traveling.

I'll attempt to post this from the airport if I get there with any time to spare. Or maybe from my phone, on which I'm typing very slowly right now. If I can post updates throughout the day I will.

[Chris Hennes]

Rumor has it you can get some pretty fine coffee at LaGuardia... the Memphis airport, on the other hand, not so much.

[Fat Guy]

LaGuardia is not a single entity. The Delta terminal is pretty nice but I got here a little early to try the Pat LaFreida burger place.

Boarding is delayed, of course.

[Chris Hennes]

How long is your layover in Memphis? You eating there? Do you recall the name of the coffee place at LGA that's been getting all the press recently? I don't recall which terminal it was in.

[Fat Guy]

Approaching one hour of delay here on the LaGuardia end, the length of my layover in Memphis is rapidly shrinking to zero. So much for a shot at Corky's barbecue or anything like that. And, unfortunately, since they keep announcing that the delay here will be 10 more minutes, instead of just fessing up to an hour in the first place, I haven't been able to step away from the gate to investigate the food-court options down the corridor. Instead, I had the breakfast of champions: yogurt, a banana and 600 milligrams of ibuprofen.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

[Kerry Beal]

They need to give you one of those buzzers that you get while you are waiting to be seated in the finest dining establishments - then you could wander away from the gate.

[Fat Guy]

I guess I've got time to get caught up on a couple more photos.

Here's PJ's lunch for today:

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Okay they're finally boarding. More later.

[andiesenji]

Thanks for posting about Sarabeth's book. I pre-ordered it a while back but had forgotten all about it. (Several upcoming books on my pre-order list and it had dropped to page 2)

Now your photos have really increased my desire to actually hold the book in my hands.

I visited a few bakeries the last time I was in NYC but my time was very limited (was there for the Westminster dog show) and can't recall if Sarabeth's was one of them.

One of the reasons I began baking at home was because of the dearth of good bakeries within a reasonable distance of my home. That was many years ago and now I do it simply for pleasure.

[davidkeay]

In terms of the picnic, we got our food from Hummus Place. This is one of our favorite inexpensive restaurants. Every couple of years I start a topic called "put your money where your mouth is," The $7.95 lunch special includes hummus as well as a choice of appetizer. We most always get falafel as the appetizer -- they do that very well too, though we have a different favorite place if falafel is to be the actual centerpiece of the meal.

That eggplant sandwich at that Hummus Place is also a fantastic lunch deal. It's really two sandwiches with eggplant and hard boiled egg. They even have amba to go with it, something I miss at a lot of falafel joints.

I'm curious about which falafel place is actually your favorite around there! Lately I've been going to maoz to take advantage of the salad bar too, but I think I still prefer the actual falafel at Hummus Place.

[Fat Guy]

We pulled up at the gate in the Memphis airport with 12 minutes for me to make my connection. The gate agent told me I was about to attempt the impossible: get from the farthest gate on the B wing to almost the farthest gate on the A wing. As I made a mad dash across the airport (I was motivated because the next flight would get me in close to 6 hours later, defying all expectations of how fast an overweight, out-of-shape fellow can get from place to place, I powered past Jim Neely's barbecue in the B wing and Corky's barbecue in the A wing. Jim Neely's in particular smelled amazing. I considered that it wouldn't take all that long to grab a pulled pork sandwich to take on the plane, but in the end I wasn't bold enough to try it. As it was, the moving walkway -- which could have saved me a minute or two -- was out of service in the direction I needed to go. And then it turned out my little plane for the Memphis-to-Gulfport leg of the trip didn't use a jetway -- I had to go out outside, where a guy pointed to a plane in the distance and said, "That one." It turned out to be sitting right behind Corky's.

I've finally checked in at the Battle House Hotel. That's another great thing about press trips. When I travel on my own, I stay in Motel 6. When I go on a press trip, I get to stay at whatever is the nicest hotel in a given town, sponsored by the local CVB, the hotel itself, or someone (I'm not sure who paid on this particular trip; I just know it's not me). This place seems completely awesome. I'm going to go explore a bit right after I catch up on a couple more posts, then we're off to dinner.

[Fat Guy]

Here's the Sarabeth's recipe for currant scones, as well as the official photo from Rizzoli:

Currant Scones

Makes 12 scones

In Britain, these are teatime favorites, but in the States, we like them for breakfast, too. You’ll get tall, flaky, buttery scones that are excellent partners with your finest jams.

¾ cup whole milk

2 large eggs, chilled

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons superfine sugar

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

A few gratings of fresh nutmeg

10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½-inch cubes

½ cup dried currants

1 large egg, well beaten with a hand blender, for glazing

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 425°F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. TO MAKE THE DOUGH BY HAND: Whisk the milk and 2 eggs together in a small bowl; set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. Add the butter and mix quickly to coat the butter with the flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour, scraping the butter off the blender as needed, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs with some pea-size pieces of butter. Mix in the currants. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the milk mixture and mix just until the dough clumps together.

TO USE A MIXER: Whisk the milk and 2 eggs together in a small bowl; set aside. Sift the dry ingredients together into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Add the butter. Attach the bowl to the mixer and fit with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until the mixture looks mealy with some pea-size bits of butter. Mix in the currants. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the milk mixture, mixing just until the dough barely comes together.

3. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of flour on top. Knead the dough a few times, just until it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Do not overwork the dough. The surface will be floured, but the inside of the dough should remain on the wet side. Gently roll out the dough into a ¾-inch-thick round.

4. Using a 2 ½-inch fluted biscuit cutter, dipping the cutter into flour between cuts, cut out the scones (cut straight down and do not twist the cutter) and place 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared half-sheet pan. To get the most biscuits out of the dough, cut out the scones close together in concentric circles. Gather up the dough scraps, knead very lightly, and repeat to cut out more scones. You should get two scones from the second batch of scraps. Brush the tops of the scones lightly with the beaten egg, being sure not to let the egg drip down the sides (which would inhibit a good rise).

5. Place the scones in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 400°F. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool on the pan for a few minutes, then serve warm or cool completely.

And here's the recipe for her house bread:

Sarabeth’s House Bread

Baker’s Note: Bread dough made with a high proportion of whole grains has a tacky, almost sticky exterior. If you notice this texture when handling the dough, do not try to adjust it with more flour. As long as the dough isn’t sticking to the kneading surface, it is fine. For dry yeast, refer to the adjusted liquid measurements in the directions.

1 ounce (2 packed tablespoons) compressed yeast

or 3½ teaspoons active dry yeast

¼ cup honey

2¼ cups cold water

2¾ cups whole wheat flour

2¾ cups bread flour, plus more as needed

2 tablespoons stone-ground yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1½ teaspoons fine sea salt

2 tablespoons hulled sunflower seeds

Softened unsalted butter, for the bowl and pans

1 large egg, beaten with a hand blender, for the glaze

1 Crumble the yeast finely into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Add the honey

and let stand until the yeast gives off some moisture, about 3 minutes. Whisk well

to dissolve the yeast. Add the water and whisk to combine. (If using active dry

yeast, sprinkle the yeast over ¼ cup warm, 105° to 115°F, water in a small bowl.

Let stand 5 minutes to soften the yeast, then stir to dissolve. Pour into the mixer

bowl. Add 2 cups cold water and the honey and whisk to combine.)

2 Attach the bowl to the mixer and fit with the paddle attachment. Combine the

whole wheat flour, 2¼ cups of the bread flour, the cornmeal, poppy seeds,

sesame seeds, and salt in a large bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the

flour and seed mixture. Beat until a dough begins to form. 
 Gradually add enough

of the remaining bread flour to form a rough dough that cleans the sides of the

bowl. Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Knead on medium-low

speed until the dough is smooth and slightly sticky, about 5 minutes, again adding

a little more flour only if necessary—keep the dough soft. During the last minute or

so, add the sunflower seeds.

3 Transfer the dough to a clean work surface. Knead with your hands to check the

dough’s texture: It should be slightly sticky but not stick to the work surface.

Knead in more flour only if needed. Butter a medium bowl. Shape the dough into a

taut ball. Place in the bowl, turn to coat with butter, and turn smooth side up.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until the dough doubles

in volume, about 1¼ hours.

4 Cut the dough in half. Shape each piece into a ball. Place on a lightly floured work

surface and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for 15 minutes. Butter two 8 by

4 by 2½-inch loaf pans. Working with one ball of dough at a time, gently press

to deflate the dough . Pat the dough gently into a thick 8-inch-long rectangle.

Starting from the long side, roll and shape into an 8-inch-long loaf and pinch the

long seam closed . Place, seam side down, in the pan. Repeat with the remaining

dough. Place the pans on a half-sheet pan.

5 Choose a warm spot in the kitchen for proofing. Slip the pan with the loaf pans

into a tall “kitchen-sized” plastic bag. Place a tall glass of hot water on the pan

between the loaves to keep the plastic from touching the dough. Tightly close the

bag, trapping air in the bag to partially inflate it. Let stand until the loaves gently

dome about an inch above the tops of the pans, about 45 minutes.

6 Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375°F. Remove the glass

from the bag, then the pan with the loaf pans. Brush the tops lightly but thoroughly

with the beaten egg. Bake until the loaves are browned and the bottoms sound

hollow when tapped, about 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Remove the loaves from the pans and cool completely on the rack.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Fat Guy
Corrections to bread recipe (log)

[Anna N]

Steven, we seem to be missing much of the ingredient list for the bread!

[Fat Guy]

You're right. That's exactly as it was sent to me but it's clearly missing information. I'll follow up.

[Fat Guy]

Okay last things before I head out to explore the fancy hotel.

Breakfast for PJ and Ellen consisted of poached eggs, the last of the Sarabeth's house bread from yesterday (toasted), jam and butter.

I've been doing a lot of work on poached eggs lately. In the past few months I've probably poached 500 of them, using most every method and variation. This week I've been experimenting with cracking them into little dishes before poaching. This seems to increase reliability, especially for people who don't poach eggs often.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

I'm getting really hungry for dinner. The last meal I ate was my lame breakfast, and all I had between then and now was a can of cranberry-apple "juice" (15% juice, 85% sweetened water) and two little foil envelopes of peanuts on the plane. Dinner should be good, though. We're going to Wintzell’s Oyster House.

[Peter the eater]

I've been doing a lot of work on poached eggs lately. In the past few months I've probably poached 500 of them, using most every method and variation.

Any luck with a microwave? I have this idea that it must be possible to mike a perfect poached egg. I can't do it.

[victornet]

I can say, with no objectivity whatsoever, that the Sarabeth book is a killer. My wife edited it, and our friend Tracey Zabar was midwife.

I can't tell you how many evenings over the last couple of years that Sarabeth has called up and asked "Why is that lunatic wife of yours still at Rizzoli?.....(i.e. not home yet to eat my cooking)".

No element went untested on this project - it should be one of those books you can cook from every day.

[Pam R]

This week I've been experimenting with cracking them into little dishes before poaching. This seems to increase reliability, especially for people who don't poach eggs often.

What was your technique before using the bowls? Cracking them right into the pot of water?

[Kent Wang]

I have some flexible silicone "bowls" that are made especially for poaching eggs. They work fairly well, but now I just sous vide.

[Fat Guy]

Any luck with a microwave? I have this idea that it must be possible to mike a perfect poached egg. I can't do it.

I haven't been able to cook an egg in the microwave without it exploding.

[Fat Guy]

What was your technique before using the bowls? Cracking them right into the pot of water?

Right. I've experimented with bowls on occasion, and I do think they can be helpful for people who are having poaching difficulties. But if you develop good cracking technique the bowls don't really improve anything -- and they create an extra step and an extra set of things to wash.

[Fat Guy]

This is Miss Pinky:

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Miss Pinky was our server this evening at Wintzell's Oyster House on Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile, Alabama. Miss Pinky is a marvel, an avalanche of wit and wisdom. "The crabcakes are so good they'll make you wanna go bear huntin' with a switch."

Some of us think of fish and seafood as lighter fare. That attitude is not reflected in Wintzell's approach to menu planning. The food is significant. I ate too much.

We started with an embarrassment of oysters, platter upon platter, prepared various ways.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

There you can see oysters Monterey, oysters Rockefeller, oysters Bienville and "grilled oysters." (I do think the grilled oysters are grilled at some point in their preparation, but by the time they hit the table they have been blanketed with parmesan, romano and pepper butter.) The table favorite was oysters Monterey -- the ones with the cheddar, bacon and jalapeno -- though I went against consensus and preferred the grilled. This was evidenced by my consumption of about a dozen of them (as I mentioned there were many platters), a feat that nearly maxed out my consumption ability for the evening. The Bienville were also quite good, covered with a sauce of shrimp, crabmeat and parmesan. The oysters Rockefeller were not remarkable. Nothing wrong with them, but you can get them as good lots of places. Each oyster of each type was rather large, and the bowl of the oyster was completely filled with sauce. So each oyster was a mini meal. My mistake was treating them like appetizers.

Other starters for our meal (the management selected and sent out starters -- although to say "selected" sort of implies a choice, whereas I think they sent them all) included the restaurant's version of West Indies Salad.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

That photo wasn't what you expected when I said West Indies Salad, was it? I'm not sure what the expected West Indies Salad should be, but certainly not lump crabmeat with vinegar, onion and black pepper. This is something I've only ever seen in the coastal lowlands, particularly Alabama but I've also seen it pop up in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. I've never bothered to do any research on it. The Southern Table has researched it, though, and the account sounds legit. Various sources, including Saveur, all seem to agree that the West Indies Salad was created and named in 1947 by an Alabama restaurateur named Bill Bayley. In any event, it's a nice take on lump crabmeat salad and was the only really light, refreshing thing we had all evening -- so I ate almost a whole bowl of it.

We also tried the gumbo (correctly made), shrimp in a Creole "barbecue" sauce (just okay) and some other stuff I didn't get to photograph due to the fast and furious pace of the group -- for example fried green tomatoes smothered in a superb crayfish sauce.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

For my main course (yes, after all that we were expected to order main courses), I had the crabcakes, served on top of fried green tomatoes with the aforementioned crayfish sauce. They were great, as were the sides of hush puppies and sweet-potato casserole (I also got fried okra, which was fried okra). I might have been tempted to go bear hunting with a switch but I was too stuffed to think about any activity requiring expenditure of energy.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Here are just some of the things other people ordered. I got to taste about half of them.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

Of the items I got to sample, the bacon-wrapped shrimp were the most impressive.

We also had desserts. I chose bread pudding, which was good enough to inspire me to eat about half of the large portion.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

The restaurant itself is very cool. We were dining at the original location. (There are also several newer branches in and near Alabama.) This is what it looks like from outside:

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

And the bar:

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

The walls are covered with signs quoting the folk wisdom of the founder, Oliver Wintzell, who opened the restaurant in 1938 (it has not been owned by the family since the 1970s). According to John T. Edge, the first one ever posted was "A man can sometimes get a pearl out of an oyster, but it takes a pretty girl to get a diamond out of a crab." You get the idea.

The meal was enjoyable, but the highlight of the evening was the opportunity to talk to Wintzell's president, Bob O'Mainsky.

Photo: Ellen R. Shapiro

He not only runs the Wintzell's restaurant group but also is very involved in the local restaurant association and the fishing industry. So he has a lot of opinions about fishing in the Gulf, most of which boil down to the position that Gulf seafood is still perfectly safe to eat, and that while the BP spill was a true disaster the reactions to it have been disproportionate to the actual impact on food safety. That seems to be the overwhelming majority opinion in these parts. More on that as I get into it with some industry and science people.

[Fat Guy]

I'm getting ready to head off to spend the morning with a local chef, Wesley True. I got up earlier than usual on account of the time difference so I've been catching up on much-neglected reading about Gulf Coast seafood. In particular, I've been looking for written confirmation (or refutation) of some of the arguments Bob Donlon made last night.

Of all the things I've read today, this piece from USA Today has the best summary of the factual information. It's also a good read from the human-interest perspective.

This is the key statistic, I think, about Gulf Coast seafood safety: "Of the 1,007 samples tested so far, only one has failed — a red snapper pulled from an area south of Orange Beach, Ala., in May, said Christine Patrick, an NOAA spokeswoman."

It's strange. On the one hand, I remember watching a hundred million gallons of oil -- or maybe more -- spill into the Gulf. Plus there were all the chemical dispersants. All that stuff has to go somewhere. On the other hand, lab testing hasn't shown the local seafood to be unsafe. The testing seems so rigorous, it makes me think that right now seafood from the Gulf is more likely to be safe than from anywhere else (most seafood is not all that carefully monitored).

Another thing that provides me with some sense of relief: it's not permanent. In other words, even if fish eat oil, they process it out. From the article, quoting an NOAA supervising research chemist, "Fish and shrimp metabolize hydrocarbons quickly, within days, so even if they had been exposed to oil at some point in their lifespan, when caught in clean water they would have had time to filter it from their bodies, she said."

More to come.

[David Ross]

I'm really interested to hear about what seafood they are currently harvesting and what the perceptions are of the people walking into local diners and cafe's when they read the words "fresh" and "local" seafood on menus. Are they scared to eat the seafood down there, regardless of what scientific studies are telling us?