The temperatures dropped precipitously yesterday… from a high of 75 in the morning, to a low of 65 by 3pm. A sure sign that autumn is here. I raced into the garden to harvest as much basil as I could before the plants started to feel the chill… causing the leaves to yellow and fall off (much like the New England foliage).
Some people preserve basil for the winter by making large batches of pesto. I’ve opted against this method because I don’t want to commit to that flavor profile. Instead, ’ve pureed the leaves with olive oil and froze them in ice cube trays. The flavor preserves nicely, but the color fades to a drab army green.
This year, I’m trying something different.
I picked the leaves, and laid them on a cookie sheet to freeze. I didn’t wash them – the water hastens the discoloration. More importantly, the residual moisture would cause the leaves to stick together, and I wanted IQF leaves. I’m not worried about dirt, either. The weather has been so dry that the leaves are quite pristinely clean.
When I transferred the leaves to Ziploc bag for the longer term storage, the color was still bright green, though slightly translucent. I imagine that they would be best used to add to a dish for the last 30 seconds of cooking – they hold their color and flavor, but not the texture of fresh green leaves.
Every March and August, restaurants in the Boston-area offer discounted prix-fixe menus as a way to lure customers into the restaurant as part of the well-promoted restaurant week. While it doesn't cost anything for a restaurant to participate in restaurant week, they pay an annual membership fee to the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau. In exchange, the restaurants receive free promotion and marketing through the GBCVB website and other affiliates.
For many it seems like a no-brainer to participate. Many of the new and trendy restaurants have no trouble filling seats even during the slow months, but the more seasoned restaurants welcome this burst in business.
The restaurants benefit from participating in that they get free marketing and promotion. And diners tend to be more open to trying new restaurants during this period, so the restaurant has the chance to lure new customers into becoming regular patrons.
Like this and any other promotion, the added business can definitely help the top line – even with the reduced prices, revenues pick up significantly. The real question is: does the added business do enough for the bottom line – with the cost of participation as well as the higher food and labor costs.
As a business owner, you must decide if this promotion can effectively increase business. And if not, does the promotion offer other long term benefits beyond the momentary uptick in sales.
Samantha's (the name has been masked, as the company was recently sold to a new owner) was a local food service company with retail cafes in the financial district of Boston. They catered to the lunch-time crowd with salads, soups and sandwiches. After 10 years in business they had garnered a reputation of high quality food, albeit slightly expensive compared to the competition.
The Challenge
Over the span of 6 months, food costs climbed over ½ percent, from a precariously high 36.5% to 37.1%. With revenues over $2,000,000, that ½ percent translated into $10,000 of lost profit. And trying to get to get the food cost to a more manageable 32% would bring an astounding $102,000 straight to the bottom line.
The Process
In order to find opportunities to reduce food cost, we examined the entire operation:
We determined theoretical food cost for the entire menu by reviewing invoices, recipes and portion sizes.
We analyzed food handling procedures
We evaluated the value proposition of Samantha's to its customers.
We analyzed the competition's pricing structure.
Each process, yielded valuable information which provided opportunities to reduce food cost:
Based on sales mix and volume we determined that in a best case scenario, food cost should be 35.5%;
By exploring food handling procedures, we accounted for 2% shrink. In addition, cooks were serving customers portions up to 11% higher than recipes dictated.
The value proposition of high portions of high quality food at responsible prices contributed significantly and directly to high food costs.
The Outcome
By understanding all the contributing factors to high food cost we had many opportunities to reduce it:
Modified recipes to yield better food cost.
Negotiated prices with vendors
Improved training so that portion sizes match set recipes.
Reduced overall portion size.
Modified prices to match the competition.
By tackling the problem from many angles, food cost decreased 2% points almost immediately, with indications that food cost would decrease even further.
In the spring of 1993, I had just returned from culinary school with a first place award for a food and wine pairing contest. The family gathered at my Aunt Carol’s apartment for a tasting of my winning dish – a puff pastry filled with peppered brie and dried cherry chutney – and the wine, a 1990 Fenestra Merlot from Livermore Valley.
To celebrate, my uncle Janusz brought a bottle of a fancy bottle of wine from St. Emillion, a region in France renowned for their Merlot wines. Surely, he thought, if the $15 Fenestra Merlot worked well, a more impressive bottle would be even better.
Tasting the wines on their own, the St. Emillion wine outshone the Fenestra. But when we tasted the wines with the “award-winning” appetizer, it fell flat. Both the Fenestra wine and the dried cherry-cheese stuffed puffs tasted better together than on their own.
How could two bottles of merlot pair so differently? The soil, the vintage, the vinification…. All these factor effect the flavor of the wine. The California wines tend to be more “fruit-forward” and the French wines lean toward earthy, leathery and dusty flavors. And these differences in flavor mean the wines will be enhanced by different foods.
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg tackle the complicated task of food and wine pairing in their new book, What to Drink with What You Eat.
Food and Wine pairing are like marriages: 5% sparkle, each component enhancing the other. 90% of just fine – neither part suffers for the pairing, but they are no better either. And the final 5% are just abysmal – each part actually tastes worse for being paired together. My usual pairing may get me into the high end of the “90% range.” This book helps you find pairings in the top 5%.
In the first section of the book, they give an overview of food and wine pairing. Their tips mirror what I have always believed:
Think regionality: French wines with French foods, South American wines with Latin Food. The soil that inspired the wine similarly inspired the food.
Think weight: a heavy red wine with a thick (heavy) steak. A light, bright Sancerre with Oysters on the Half Shell
Think flavors – A chardonnay with hints of apple and oak would pair well with Pork and sautéed apples. Vanilla and warm spices of Pinot Noir would taste even better with vanilla scented pork.
Think contrast – A tannic wine needs a rich dish to cling too. And an acidic white wine will cut through a rich cream sauce.
These tips are great if you can pick out the flavors in the wine on your own, but for most, this is the biggest challenge in wine pairing. And this book helps guide the reader in making these decisions. It’s like an index – listing each wine, each ingredient, and its appropriate pairing. The lists respect the different nuances of each grape varietal – for example, it suggests an Alsatian geuwurtztrimainer with choucroute but not a Californian – and of each meat – realizing that a lean flank steak will pair differently than a rich beef short rib.
You can search for pairings either by wine or by food. If you are serving chicken, you can by the main ingredient or by the flavors (perhaps you’re flavoring the chicken with tarragon). Or if you have a special bottle of wine, you can look up the wine to see what foods would go well with it.
This book is an excellent resource for enhancing your food and wine experience.
When I walked into the kitchen of the lake house, the aromas of a fresh cooked dinner warmly greeted me at the door. The house was empty so I poked my nose into the pots on the stove. The first pot, set on a very low fire, had rice in it. I quickly closed the lid, fearing I might have let out too much steam and irreparably ruined it. The next pot wafted allusive aromas mixed with meatballs and eggplant. I lingered a little longer there.
About 20 minutes later, the kitchen was still empty. Farzad, the Iranian brother-in-law of my friend Mandy and mastermind behind all the aromas, was out in the canoe with his family. I queried Mandy who was puttering around outside, “Should we turn off the burners? I’m a little worried that the rice will overcook and burn.”
“No.” She advised, “Farzad said to just leave everything as it is, it’s fine.”
Even the slowest cooking rice is done in 45 minutes, and by now this had been cooking for over an hour. But I decided to leave it alone. I’d rather the rice be ruined under his instruction than under my tinkering.
When Farzad finally returned, he explained the secrets of Iranian rice. First, he pre-cooks and drains the rice. This ensures the grains are separate. Then he returns the rice to the pot for the more traditional cooking, leaving it on the burner until a crispy crust develops on bottom of the pot. When the rice is cooked he turns it out onto a serving platter, tapping the crust to listen to its crunchy texture. He affectionately doles out the crust at dinner… alongside the meatballs that have simmer in a broth of tomatoes, spices and caramelized, persevered lemons.
When I returned home the next day, I decided it was time to finally try the Iranian recipe of chicken and sour cherries that I had been eyeing for a long time. It would be the perfect vehicle for the rice. I didn’t have the patience (or strength of character?) to let the rice cook on the stovetop until the crust developed. Instead, I formed the cooked rice into patties and fried them in a little oil. And I should note, I mixed in cooked green lentils into the rice just to give it a little more "nutritional" value.
Iranian Roast Chicken with Sour Cherries I started with a recipe from the Time Life cookbook: Foods of the World and then added inspiration from other recipes unearthed around the web. As the kitchen filled with wonderful scents, I realized the distinctive flavor of Iranian cuisine is the combination of cumin and saffron – also present in the rose-scented lamb.
1 chicken, cut into 6 pieces (bones and skin left on) 1 tsp. salt 1 onion, peeled and diced ¼ tsp. saffron ½ lemon juiced ½ tsp cumin ¼ cup olive oil 1 cup sour cherries 2 zucchini, cut into ½ moons
1 cup basmati rice
1. Combine chicken with salt, onion, saffron, lemon and cumin. Let marinate for at least one hour. 2. Bring 3 cups of salted water to a boil in an enamel or non-stick pot. Add the rice, and cook for 10 minutes. Drain. Return rice to the pot. Add 1 ½ cups of water. Put over a high flame until water boils. Turn heat to low, cover the pot and continue cooking for an hour. 3. Preheat the oven to 375. 4. Brush marinade off of chicken. Heat an oven-proof large skillet over high heat. Add the oil. Brown the chicken on the skin side. Turn chicken over and put pan in oven. 5. After the chicken has been cooking for 15 minutes, take out of the oven, and add zucchini and sour cherries to the pan (making sure not to cover the skin, as it will otherwise get soggy). 6. Continue cooking the chicken for 10 more minutes until cooked through. 7. Serve chicken with pan juices alongside the crispy rice.
I shudder to say this, but I’m in a tomato rut. I know I’ll be horrified in February that I could even have such thoughts.
I know, I know… basil and tomatoes are the quintessential food pairing. And this year, both have benefited from the sweltering summer heat. But after weeks of tomatoes and basil, I need to shake it up. Mint and Tomatoes is also a Mediterranean combination with roots closer to Turkey than Italy.
As I thought about dinner last night, I started with mint as my canvas to paint on flavors. Zucchini and bacon came to mind, as did a favorite, Trout with Mint and Bacon.
A simple meal to be sure, but full of bright flavors.
Black Sea Bass with Tomatoes, Mint and Bacon 2 black sea bass filets 1 slice bacon, chopped 1 small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped ¼ cup mint leaves Lemon 1 – 2 tomatoes, sliced Canola oil or butter Salt and pepper to taste
1. Season fish with salt and pepper 2. In a large skillet, add bacon. Turn heat to medium and cook until bacon releases its fat and begins to crisp. Add the onions and garlic and cook until they are soft. Remove from pan. 3. Drain all but a thin layer of bacon grease from the pan. Add a little fresh oil or butter, and return the pan to high heat. Sear the fish for 4 minutes on the flesh side. Turn over and continue cooking for 1 minute on the skin side. 4. Remove from pan and serve with a heavy squeeze of lemon juice, a sprinkle of mint and slices of tomatoes. Sprinkle bacony-goodness on top.
My friend Matthew called again the other day in a panic – he had two more boxes from his farm-share, CSA subscription that were now languishing in his refrigerator. He had been sharing the subscription with two other friends, but both were out of town and he was baffled by the bounty.
He brought over his vegetables. Amid the overflowing diversity, I found a 10 pound bag of tomatoes a wee past prime. I began trimming the bad parts from the tomatoes, eyeing the tomatoes on the counter from my garden that also needed attention. Just then, my neighbor showed up outside my window. She brought over a basket of her tomatoes – a thank you for the tomatoes I had shared with her earlier in the season when she had none.
I put a large pot on the stove and started a big batch of tomato sauce. I sautéed garlic in olive oil and then added the tomatoes. I didn’t bother to peel or seed them. Some I didn’t even cut. As they softened from the heat, I crushed them. They cooked down for about 20 minutes, and then I pureed them.
With the base of tomato sauce, and an abundance of eggplant from my garden and the farm-share, I decided to make moussaka.
From the garden: garlic, tomatoes, mint, eggplant From the CSA box: tomatoes, eggplant
Moussaka Moussaka is a layered casserole dish with origins in Greece. It reminds me of lasagna with fried eggplant slices instead of pasta.
Eggplant 3 medium sized eggplant 1 tbs. salt ½ cup flour ½ cup olive oil ½ cup grated asiago cheese
Sauce 1 tbs. olive oil 1 onion, peeled and chopped 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped 1 pound lamb 1 tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp. dried greek oregano 2 cups tomato sauce Salt and pepper 2 tbs. fresh mint
Besamel Sauce 2 cups milk 2 tbs. butter, room temperature ¼ cup flour 3 eggs ½ tsp. salt
1. Cut the eggplant into ½ inch slices. Sprinkle them with salt and let sit for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, start the sauce…. Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onions and garlic and cook until they start to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the lamb, salt and pepper. With a spoon, break up the lamb. Add the cinnamon, oregano and tomatoes. Continue cooking until the sauce is thick, about 20 minutes. Set aside and stir in the mint.
3. Make the besamel sauce… In a pot, heat 1 ½ cups of milk. In a bowl, whisk eggs with remaining milk. Knead together the flour and butter. Slowly pour in hot milk into egg/milk mixture while whisking vigorously. Return to pot over medium heat. Stir in flour/butter mix and continue cooking until it thickens. Season with salt and remove from heat.
4. Fry eggplant… Brush off excess salt and moisture. Dust slices with flour. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, fry the eggplant slices until golden brown on both sides. It may be necessary to cook in several batches. Drain on a paper towel.
5. Assemble the moussaka: in a 9” x 9” pyrex dish, layer half of the eggplant slices on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the cheese on top. Pour sauce on top and spread evenly in the pan. Layer the remaining eggplant on top. Sprinkle another third of the cheese on top of the eggplant. Pour the besamel sauce on top and sprinkle remaining cheese on top of that.
6. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.
A terrible thing happened the other day: I ran out of Lan Chi Chile Garlic Paste. I scoured the streets of Chinatown looking for a replacement jar – I even hit the Korean Markets with hopes that they would have an errant Chinese product. No luck.
I didn’t realize the level of distress this would cause until I set out to make spicy mayo for sushi. I substituted Rooster brand chili garlic sauce. The labels are almost identical: chili, garlic, oil, salt (though the Rooster brand does have a bit of vinegar). But the flavors are miles apart. My need for Lan Chi reached fever pitch.
Finally, I found a supply at the Whole Foods. Of course, it was almost triple the price of what I would find in Chinatown. The price difference only amounted to $2, so I decided to let go of my principals and chalk it up to convenience and time saved hunting.
Yesterday, as I made my own hot-sauce, I pondered how three simple ingredients could taste so different. Much of this depends on the variety of chilies and how they are treated.
Knowing that each variety of chile has a different type and intensity of heat, I bought 4 different varieties: Serrano, Fresno, Jalapeno and Anaheim. To add sweetness, depth (and mellow the heat a bit), I added an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a sweet red bell pepper and a tomato.
I roasted it all in the oven until the chilies blistered and browned. I pureed it with cider vinegar and salt.
My hot sauce has a pop of sweetness in the beginning that gives way to a lingering heat. It’s definitely hot but wouldn’t win any prizes at East Coast Grill’s Hell Night (which, by the way, is next week and all four nights are sold out).
Vinegar based hot sauces will keep for many months in the refrigerator. But to play it safe, I decided to freeze half. I would have canned it, but I ran out of jars.
From the garden: garlic, tomato From the Farmers’ Market: chilies, onions, red bell pepper
Julia’s Hot Sauce 8 chilies 1 onion 1 bulb garlic ½ red bell pepper 1 large tomato 1 – 2 tbs. canola oil ¼ – ½ cup vinegar Salt
Remove the stems from the chilies. Peel the onion, and cut into chunks. Peel the garlic. Cut the red pepper into quarters. Remove the stem from the tomato and cut into large chunks.
Toss the vegetables in oil and roast in a 375F oven for 20 – 30 minutes until the chilies are blistered and lightly browned.
Put everything in the blender and add just enough vinegar so that you can puree into a smooth paste/sauce. Season with salt.
A year ago May, my friend Rena came over for drinks. She brought a gift: a spindly tomato sprout she had started from seed. Given my lack of success starting tomato plants from seed, I was skeptical that I could get this fledging plant to survive the transplanting into the garden, much less produce fruit. But trying to be gracious, I thanked her very much and planted it in a high-sun corner of the garden.
Lo and behold, it survived. And thrived.
This spring, as I was cleaning the garden and weeding the vegetable beds, I noticed a leaf formation that looked like a tomato sprout, wedged in with the mint. I carefully dug it out, and replanted it with a cage around it. Who knew what would appear.
Sure enough, it was a yellow cherry tomato plant, an off-spring of that original gift from Rena. I couldn’t even imagine the first plant surviving, much less getting a second year’s harvest from it.
Thank you Rena for the gift that keeps on giving!
Caramelized Cherry Tomato Sauce
This recipe comes from my farmer friend Brett and was developed when he was the chef at Restaurant Nora and I was the grill cook.
3 pints whole cherry tomatoes and/or cubed bigger heirloom tomatoes ½ tsp. Kosher or sea salt ½ tsp. black pepper 1 tbs. minced garlic 2 tbs. minced onion ½ to 1 tsp. fresh orange zest 2 T brown sugar fresh basil, tarragon or thyme 1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
1. Mix together tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic and onions.
2. Attentively broil, not bake, in an oven until the skins of the top tomatoes have just blackened. Remove from broiler, and stir in half of the above chopped herbs, or fresh herbs of your choice (not dill). Add balsamic vinegar, and taste for any further need for salt or pepper.
3. The sauce is outstanding served atop otherwise mundane chicken, fish, shrimp, or vegetarian rice dishes. It freezes well, but taste after thawing for additional herb, vinegar, or salt needs.
About a year ago, a commercial aired on TV with a woman lamenting the high cost of organics:
“I don’t understand why organics cost more when you’re getting less.”
She was referring to less chemicals and additives. Thankfully, I haven’t seen that commercial air again… it makes no sense! But it raises the more important issue of why organics cost more than conventionally grown and raised produce and meats. As I scoured the web for facts and figures, I discovered some interesting findings:
Organic farming is often more cost effective than conventional:
1. Farms that switch from conventional farming practices to organic reportedly have lower yields in the first 5 years. But as the soil health recovers and nitrogen levels increase, yields improve. Over time, organic farms have greater yields than conventional farms, especially in drought conditions.
2. Because organic farms utilize sustainable farming practices like crop rotation, composting and cover-cropping, the inputs (such as water, fertilizer and insecticides) can be less expensive, one study reporting 28% less.
Nonetheless it is more expensive at the supermarket. The reasons are numerous, and several relate to the infamous “Farm Bill”
1. Labor on organic farms is higher, anywhere from 15% – 35% higher, depending on which study you reference. The higher labor cost, in part, results from implementing sustainable farming practices such as crop rotation and cover cropping. These farming practices require year-round labor. Further, organic farmers are more likely to work on their own land without “billing” the farm.
2. For farmers raising livestock, the cost of organic feed is more expensive. Commercially raised grains are less expensive due to the subsidies in the farm bill that keep the cost of “commodity crops” artificially low.
3. For processed foods like frozen dinners or baked goods, incorporating commodity crops into the production keeps the costs low.
The 2008 Farm Bill is over 1,700 pages, and covers a range of topics including the infamous “commodity” crops: wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, long grain rice, medium grain rice, pulse crops, soybeans, and other oil seeds. Farmers receive payments for these crops when prices fall below a certain threshold. The more the farmer grows, the greater the payment. And with more commodity crops flooding the market, the price drops further – a simple function of high supply with level demand.
To bring it full circle, many farmers, food producers and other large companies are figuring out ways to use these less expensive commodity crops in the normal course of operation to save money. For example, cattle farmers feed their animals corn instead of grass and grain, even though it is not part of their evolutionary developed diet, because it is cheaper.
Recent changes made to the farm bill have made organic farming more financially viable.
1. Previous versions of the Farm Bill dictated that organic farms must pay a 5% surcharge for crop insurance. This has been revoked.
2. Up until recently, organic certification could cost on average $750, plus .5% of revenues, with the farmer bearing the cost of the certification process. For farmers raising livestock, there’s an additional cost based on the number of heads. In the current version, funds have been allocated to reimburse 75% of the cost of certification, up to $750 per farm.
The 2008 Farm Bill is over 1,700 pages, and covers the following “commodity” crops: wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, long grain rice, medium grain rice, pulse crops, soybeans, and other oil seeds. Farmers receive payments for these crops when prices fall below a certain threshold. The more the farmer grows, the greater the payment. And with more grains on the market, the price drops further.
Given the wealth of information about the costs of organic, I had hoped to offer you a clear reason for the price discrepancies. But the best I can argue would be that the cost-savings in fertilizers and other inputs is erased by the increased labor costs. As more farms transition to organic and realize the increased yield potential, prices may drop.
