Blogs : CHOW Pick

Surprisingly Sweet Lemons

While filling up on my requisite Asian pear supply last weekend at the farmers’ market I noticed a pile of round, squat citrus fruit that looked like mandarin oranges in lemons’ clothing. “Sweet lemon,” said the vendor, noticing my inquisitive stare. “Meyer lemon?” I asked, not sure I understood him correctly, “No, sweet lemon,” he replied. He sliced a thin wedge and handed it to me. I don’t know if it’s a hybrid or what, but it was floral and juicy like freshly squeezed lemonade—sweet, with a sassy wink of acidity.

Chowhounds have called the fruit insipid and flavorless, but I disagree. I was so enthusiastic about my find that I immediately bought way more than my husband and I could possibly eat in a week. The fruit has the firm, tightly packed texture of a lemon, making it ideal for eating out of hand, but it would also work in any application where sweet citrus is called for: tossed in a salad, squeezed into cocktails, or cooked down with some rhubarb and spooned over ice cream.

Posted by Kate Ramos | 3 comments
Tagged with: pick, food and cooking, lemon, citrus, sweet lemon, sweetlemon

Your New Kitchen Tool Has a Motherboard

The maker of the new Touch Book, a miniature netbook-style laptop, says it boasts many attractive features: affordable price, very portable dimensions, excellent battery life, and “always on” instant start-up. So far, impressively techie. But why are we talking about it here?

Well, this little laptop has a secret: You can detach the keyboard to create an even smaller, screen-only tablet PC that is controlled via touchscreen technology. Better still, the designers have made the display half of the device magnetic, which means that you can stick it to the fridge while you’re using it. So now you’ll be able to browse CHOW for recipes and ideas in the kitchen without losing valuable counter space or risk spilling stuff on your computer.

Touch Book, $299 (screen only) or $399 with keyboard, available for preorder now and due to start shipping in May or June

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Posted by Keith Laidlaw | 4 comments
Tagged with: pick, touch book, laptop, recipes, tool, netbook, magnetic, kitchen tool, computer

The First Norwegian Sour Beer in a Century?

Last night I cracked open a bottle of Haandbakk beer made by HaandBryggeriet, a small Norwegian brewery in the town of Drammen. Haandbakk is its first attempt at a sour beer, and the brewery claims it’s the first sour beer to come out of Norway in over 100 years. Whether or not that’s true, it seriously rocks, and not just because it’s from a country so famous for its black metal.

Haandbakk is a dark brown beer, with a lot of malty flavors, tempered by an intense sourness. It doesn’t have a bunch of funky stank like gueze, more of the balsamic vinegar smell of Flemish sour ales. The beer was brewed in 2006, aged in oak for two years, then bottled. It’s unpasteurized, and comes with a good amount of yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Something must be going right in there, because it is nicely carbonated, and between the effervescence and acidity, is a great food beer.

I’ll definitely be seeking out more beers by HaandBryggeriet to fill up my drinking horn and enjoy while listening to some Dimmu Borgir. The brewery bills itself as experimental and has many interesting beers either in the works—like Valhalla which is made with figs, honey, and wild yeast and bacteria, but isn’t out yet—and a bunch that are already out like Dark Force, “the only wheat stout in the universe.” There is also a real sour fruit lambic made with red currants and mountain cranberry in the works.

HaandBryggeriet’s Haandbakk, in specialty beer shops for about $11, distributed by Shelton Brothers in the States. Visit sheltonbrothers.com to see who carries it in your area.

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Posted by Roxanne Webber | 1 comment
Tagged with: sour beer, sour ale, haandbakk haandbryggerie, wine and drinks, norway, black metal

Shirley Corriher Rides Again

The excitement in the test kitchen was palpable when we heard Shirley Corriher was coming out with another cookbook, BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking.

The recipes that have been saved by following the advice in her first book, CookWise, are innumerable. So when we heard she was putting together a baking book, we knew the salvation of many more recipes was at hand.

Shirley’s background as a chemist and her Southern charm make her books irresistible. There are many who try to explain the science behind cooking, but few who offer it in such plain language that even us cooks who failed chemistry can understand. And no other cooking-science books offer delicious recipes that you actually want to make over and over again. Blueberries with honey mascarpone cream in walnut-oat meringue anyone?

BakeWise is full of scientific explanations of various cooking methods, information on the chemical makeup of ingredients, and mathematical equations for spotting poorly written recipes, all conveyed in a lighthearted, conversational manner that makes you actually feel smarter, not intimidated.

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Posted by Kate Ramos | 2 comments
Tagged with: pick, food and cooking, bakewise, shirley corriher, cookwise, baking, science, cookbook

Fake Petits Fours for the Little Ones

If you’re looking to outfit a play kitchen, there are several ways you can go. There are your nontoxic wooden hipster sets for teaching the little ones to slice sushi, your dubiously safe plastic play food, and brand-name food sets that will gift your children with an inexplicable later-in-life love of fast food.

If you’re looking for a balance between homely wood and scary plastic, there’s the Biofino Petit Fours set by German toy company Haba. The nine petits fours are finely constructed of fabric, beads, and ribbon roses, and look delicious enough to eat. They feel good in the hand, too: soft and cushy instead of scratchy and cheap. Don’t even bother having a pretend tea party without them on your teeny tiny plate.

Haba Biofino Petit Fours, $15

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Posted by Joyce Slaton | 5 comments
Tagged with: children, kids, pick, products, haba, biofino petit fours, fake food, toys