Your Fabulous Host: Stacy Pearl

Welcome!

Each week host Stacy Pearl and one of her many marvelous Guest Hosts present Mouth of Wonder, a half hour of topical, fast-paced, humorous banter with lots of solid cooking advice thrown in, a variety of segments, and some great musical introductions. The segments include:

"Authority on everything, expert on nothing," Rula is an over-the-top advice columnist from Williamsburg Brooklyn who answers questions about food and entertaining. Sheila Vista — the ultimate Santa Fe woman — also stops by from time to time to present her cosmic view of the world and what we eat.

The Southwestern food scene
has never been so entertaining!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Delicasa

Restaurant Review

Delicasa This basic little restaurant has raised the bar on dinning out on Saint Mike's. Just up the strip mall from Kinkos and The Hidden Chicken, they offer high quality paninnis, subs and salads, as well as fancy coffee drinks and Dr. Brown's sodas. The sandwiches are excellent and not expensive and the salads are superb. Thanks to the people who brought us La Boca!

Labels:

 Posted by Stacy   

Summer Berry Crumble Bars

The Altitude Adjustment Section
Cookies and bars are a great thing to make if you are challenged by the altitude and don’t have the patience to try a recipe at least 3 times to get it right. This recipe is from the King Arthur Flour cookbook, which never lets me down. Summer Berry crumble bars rule!

Ingredients for crust and topping
2 cups A.P.flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup unsalted cold butter (2 sticks), cut into small pieces
3/4 cup sunflower seeds (optional)

Ingredients for filling
3 cups fresh blueberries or raspberries
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons A.P. flour

Ingredients for glaze
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons water
1cup confectioner’s sugar

Procedure
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch pan. To make crust and topping, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamom. Now cut in the hard butter with a pastry cutter or your hands till mixture is crumbly. Transfer 2 cups of mixture to another bowl and add sunflower seeds, set aside. Pat the remaining crumbs into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes then remove from the oven. While crust is baking, prepare the filling. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. Mix gently. Now spread filling over baked crust bottom evenly. Sprinkle the reserved crumble over the top and bake for 40 minutes more or until filling if bubbly and crust has browned. Remove from oven and now make glaze. Whisk together all the glaze ingredients and drizzle over bars while they are still warm. Cool completely before cutting. You can also substitute frozen berries if you must, but bake it while berries are still frozen or they will sink to the bottom. This makes 24 yummy bars.

 Posted by Stacy   

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Seasonal Recipe of the Week
I love pickled green tomatoes and that seems to be something you just can’t get here. So with the killer tomato crop I have on the vine, I am going to make at least one jar of these at the season’s end. It’s easy!

Ingredients
(All these ingredients are per quart of water)
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon pickling spice
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, slightly bruised
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns, slightly bruised
Handful of stalks of fresh dill, preferably with flower heads and seeds, if not add 1/4 teaspoon dill seed
1 medium unpeeled clove of garlic, slightly flattened
Green tomatoes, hard and firm

Procedure
Sort and rinse the tomatoes and measure them by quarts and put into large, clean, crock or bowl. Pour cold water over tomatoes to cover and keep track of how much water you use. Now take water out and put into a pot and multiply the ingredients in the brine as necessary. Prick each tomato with a fork and return to bowl. To the pot of measured water, add salt, pickling spice, mustard seed, and peppercorns and bring the liquid to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes and then cool completely. Add the dill and the garlic to the tomatoes and cover with the cooked and cooled brine solution. Cover bowl loosely and let stand in a cool spot, 70 degrees is ideal, for 1 –3 weeks. This time depends on their size, and the temperature where they are fermenting. Check daily — if a white scum appears on the surface (it's harmless) skim it off. When the tomatoes are pickled to your taste (you will have to try one) transfer them to clean dry jars, strain some brine over them add a piece of dill from the jar put on lids and refrigerate them.

 Posted by Stacy   

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Bernice's top picks around town


Bernice's top picks around town

The Bullring 150 Washington Street 983-3328
The best damn steak in town served with class.

La Boca 72 West Marcy Street 982-3433
Lovely Spanish tapas prepared with extreme care. This place is jumping!

Del Charro 101 West Alameda 954-0320
The best cheap burger in town and a great local bar. Parking is tricky.

Bobcat Bites 420 Las Vegas Highway 983-5319
A bit out of the way, and they have crazy short hours, but the burgers are superb.

Clafoutis 420 Guadalupe Street 988-1809
The only place in town to get croissants as well as real-deal French pastries and food. Close your eyes and you could be in Paris.

Plaza Cafe Southside 3011 Cerrillos Road 424-0755
Good normal diner food, as well as New Mexican and Middle Eastern, you can't go wrong!

Piccolino 2890 Agua Fria 471-1480
Cheap and cheerful family-style Italian restaurant in an old Church's chicken joint, go figure!

Konami 313 South Guadalupe Street 984-2002
They have a great $10.00 sushi lunch special, then shop the street!

Whole Hog 3006 Cerrillos Road 474-3375
Great BBQ, sauce on the side, so it doesn't have to be spicy. First shop at Goodwill, then do lunch, a perfect afternoon in Santa Fe.

Labels:

 Posted by Stacy