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By JANET K. KEELER, Times Staff Writer deconstructing focaccia
Focaccia is not some trendy bread introduced to the masses by the likes of Wolfgang Puck and the Food Network. Focaccia is the ancient ancestor of pizza, the Italian import Americans can't live without. It was at least 1,000 years ago that Italians first began to bake rounds of dough on rocks under mounds of hot ashes. After they where cooked, fresh herbs were strewn over them. (The Greeks were the first to put the herbs and spices on the flat-bread dough before it was cooked.) The name focaccia (foh-KAH-chee-ah) is from a Latin word meaning hearth. The flat breads were served as appetizers or snacks, according to Smithsonian Institution historians. Now, the thick, pizza-dough bread is often split and used as sandwich bread. Focaccia was especially popular in Naples, Italy, the birthplace of the modern pizza. It was there that tomatoes first adorned the dough, sometime after the late 1600s when Spanish conquistadors returned to Europe with tomatoes from Peru and Ecuador. Unlike pizza, which is often so loaded with toppings you can't taste or see the crust, modern focaccia is usually just brushed with olive oil and, perhaps, sprinkled with coarse salt and coarsely chopped herbs such as sage, basil and oregano. Imaginative bakers in Italy and the United States have introduced more toppings, and you'll find focaccia adorned with sliced cooked potatoes, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, cheese and onions. cooking classNothing spoils a sauce like a bunch of lumps. When a starch -- flour, cornstarch, or arrowroot -- is added to a hot liquid, it binds around itself and clumps. Avoid this by diluting cornstarch or arrowroot in a little cool liquid before whisking it into a hot liquid, called making a slurry. Flour needs to be cooked with butter or oil, as in a roux, before mixing it into a gravy, stew or gumbo, to assure a satiny finish. As a quick finish, flour can be worked into butter to make a paste, and then whisked into the liquid. Any liquid thickened with a starch must be brought to a full boil to thicken properly. this web site cookswww.salon.com/directory/topics/food/index.html Find out where Peeps come from, why acerbic foodie Anthony Bourdain became a chef and what's really in fast-food burgers in this collection of food essays from the online magazine Salon.com. You'll get history lessons and cooking classes, along with a few laughs from regular contributors such as Steven A. Shaw, who calls himself the "Fat Guy" and writes about sex as much as he does food. constant comment"I adore seafood, especially saltwater taffy." Heartfelt sayings
Candy hearts are always fashionable at this time of year, and 10 new sayings will help you strike a pose on Valentinue's Day. Along with "Be Mine" and "E-Mail Me" you'll find "Dress Up," "In Style," "Diva" and "Tres Chic," among others, in the small cardboard box. NECCO, the New England Confectionary Company, has been making conversation hearts since 1902. About 8-billion hearts are made a year, all sold in the six weeks before Valentine's Day. kicked-up ketchup
chocoholic alert!The Food Network honors Valentine's Day with a week of programming that celebrates chocolate. "Chocolate Obsession Week" begins at noon Saturday when pro wrestler the Rock joins pro cook the Martha on From Martha's Kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies. Pastry chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres hosts Chocolate with Jacques Torres, which debuts at 9:30 p.m. Monday and continues at the same time nightly through the week. Other shows, such as Emeril Live!, Cooking Live and Unwrapped, will also feature chocolate. Look at the TV cooking show listing on Page 2D of Taste for more details. Eating outTimes food critic Chris Sherman dines at Viva la Frida in Tampa's Seminole Heights. Thursday in Weekend.
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From the Times Taste section From the features wire |
They made purple and green ketchup for kids, and now Heinz is offering something fun for the adults as well. Kick'rs ketchups in three flavors, Zesty Garlic, Hot & Spicy and Smokey Mesquite, add zing to just about anything you put ketchup on. We tasted all three on hot dogs and french fries. Both the Zesty Garlic and Hot & Spicy, which gets its kick from Tabasco, got high marks. Either mixed with a little horseradish would make a jazzy cocktail sauce. The barbecue flavor was our least favorite, though it might be tasty on a burger or maybe mixed into ground round for a sultry meatloaf. The ketchups should be on grocery stores this month and cost $1.99 for a 19-ounce bottle.
