January 2017

Happy New Year, everybody.

After 2016, a year that seemed to be a tough one for so many people, here’s hoping that 2017 sees a big improvement for everyone. 

I hope that this first newsletter of the New Year help set you off on the right track, and please don’t forget to let us know on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram if you give any of our recipe suggestions a try.

Cheers

Simon

SIMON'S FOOD SCHOOL:

Stuff You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food

My lovely wife and I just returned from a life changing trip to Tanzania, Africa.

Our journey began with our good friends at Convoy of Hope as we joined them in the small but bustling city of Arusha to see their untiring efforts to end child hunger and empower local women as entrepreneurs.  We left inspired by their efforts and even more determined to work with them even more closely in 2017.

Then, we moved on for a few days of vacation on the small island of Zanzibar, which in a very different way had just as much impact on me, only this time, in a culinary sense.  Zanzibar has a fascinating history, including being colonized by many different nations over the centuries, before gaining its independence from Great Britain in 1963 and joining with Tanganyika to unify as the country of Tanzania in 1964.

While much of the interest in occupying the island over the centuries was because of its strategic military significance, another more interesting reason for me was its importance to the spice trade, where it had a pivotal place not only in the sale and distribution of these expensive commercial goods, but also provided the ideal conditions in which to grow a wide variety of spices.  While we now take the availability of these spices for granted, it’s worth remembering that, going back almost as far as history has been recorded, items such as peppercorns, nutmeg, mace, ginger and others have been of huge importance commercially and were so valuable that stock markets were created to sell them and wars were often fought over the lands where they were able to grow in abundance.

We took the opportunity during our stay to visit one of the many spice plantations that litter the island, a 100 acre community farm where tours were given to supplement the money raised by selling the crops.  The particular farm we visited grew over 100 varieties of fruits, herbs and spices and during our tour, we were able to sample many of them.  The impact on my palate was immediate and unforgettable.  While the taste of everything we tried was familiar to me, sampling fiery fresh ginger pulled from the ground, or plump spicy green peppercorns that burned in our mouths for minutes after eating them, was a very different from sampling the dried and withered versions of the same that are available back in the United States.  Most interesting of all was when our guide plucked a small round pear like fruit from a bush and cut it in half to reveal a marble sized nutmeg seed covered in the lacy coating of mace.  This was the first time I had seen these two spices in their natural pre-dried state and it was hard to imagine, looking at them and the unassuming bush from which they had been harvested, that these were once the single most expensive food ingredients on earth.

Nutmeg, for example was once so valued that in the 18th Century rich young men would wear neck chains to hold their precious spices as a conspicuous sign of their wealth, and the sale of nutmeg and mace was of such value to a nation’s economy that in the mid 1800’s the British and Dutch fought a four-year long war over the tiny nutmeg growing island of Ran.  In one of the great culinary “who knew?” stories of all time, the end of that war resulted in the British gaining ownership of another small much less important island which they renamed “Manhattan.”

My experiences in Zanzibar certainly changed the way that I think about the spices I use in my cooking, and I hope that reading about them will make you curious to delve into their history even more the next time you reach into your kitchen cabinets.

Smelling a freshly harvested bark of a cinnamon tree in a Spice Plantation in Zanzibar.

THE BOOK ZONE

YOUR "FIRST LOOK" RECIPE:

Ricotta Crostini

Making your own ricotta may seem like a major culinary challenge, but once you find out just how easy it is, you'll never want to buy it from a store again. It's very versatile and can be used to make a delicious breakfast when drizzled with honey and topped with crumbled nuts. It makes a perfect light lunch when spread on whole wheat toast and topped with smoked salmon and sliced avocado. Or, as in this case, it makes an appetizer that always gets a thumbs up whenever I prepare it for dinner. 

Ingredients

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Serves 6-10

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For the Ricotta

2 Containers of Good Quality Whole Milk

¼ Cup Distilled White Vinegar

¼ Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Zest of 2 Lemons

Freshly Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Honey (to drizzle)

1 Pinch Salt

For the Crostini

1 French Baguette (cut into thin slices)

1 Pinch Salt

1 Pinch Pepper

½ Cup Olive Oil

You will also need a colander, some twine and two layers of cheese cloth

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Instructions

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For the Ricotta

1. Place the milk in a large saucepan and heat gently until it reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit. You should see small bubbles begin to appear at the edges where the milk meets the pan.
2. Add the distilled white vinegar and stir once.
3. After about five minutes, you should see the curds and whey of the milk begin to separate very clearly.
4. Line a colander with a double layer of cheese cloth and place over a bowl to catch excess whey.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and using a strainer, remove the curds to the colander.
6. You can retain the whey for baking or discard it.
7. Allow the curds to drain for five minutes and then tie up the cheese cloth into a parcel using the twine.
8. You will need to hang the curds in the cheese cloth for at least three hours. I suspend mine from a faucet over a sink. The longer you hang this, the firmer the cheese will become. For this recipe, we want it to remain quite soft and creamy.
9. After about three hours, remove the cheese from the cheese cloth and place in a clean bowl.
10. Stir in enough heavy cream until the cheese reaches a creamy spreadable consistency.
11. Stir in a pinch of salt and black pepper.
12. Stir in the grated lemon zest.
13. Chill until ready to use.

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For the Crostini

1. Combine the olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Toss the baguette slices in the mixture until both sides are completely coated.
3. Lay the baguette slices on a baking tray and bake for five minutes on each site at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until they are golden brown and crunchy.

To Serve

1. Spread each crostini with a teaspoon full of the ricotta.
2. Lay all of the crostini on a platter and crack a little black pepper on top of each.
3. Drizzle the plate with honey.