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TIP OF THE DAY: Plating Food As Art


Use your artist’s eye to plate food
beautifully. Photo courtesy National Arts
Centre | Ottowa.

  How can you make a work-of-art salad—the type presented by top restaurants?

It’s easy. Think of the plate as your canvas. You’re the artist who decides how to lay out the food.

This example is from Michael Blackie, Executive Chef of the National Arts Centre in Ottowa, Canada, which includes the restaurant Le Café.

Here, Chef Blackie took two salad ingredients—beets and blue cheese—and created a beautiful plate by slicing the components in contrasting shapes and adding textural ingredients:

  • Beets in different colors, in large and small sizes, sliced both horizontally and vertically
  • Chunks of blue cheese in different sizes and shapes
  • A yogurt and lemon zest dressing
  • Crisp panko bread crumbs, to dip the dressing-covered beets in
  • Steamed Swiss chard as the green element, lightly tossed in vinaigrette (asparagus, broccoli rabe or other seasonal greens can be used)
  •  
    Combine your own favorite fruits, vegetables and proteins, looking for color elements. We made a salad of mango, cubes and triangles of leftover ham, steamed asparagus with lemon zest, dried dates and goat cheese, switching out the panko for chopped pistachio nuts.

    The right dishes create the mood. You can use your round plates, of course. But we picked up affordable long rectangular plates in New York City’s Chinatown; alternatively, you can buy nine-inch-long versions online.

    Here’s a book on food styling that is highly recommended by Top Chef winners Hung Huynh and Stephanie Izard, as well as our favorite American chef, Grant Achatz of Chicago’s Alinea restaurant.

    This week’s assignment: Vary colors, textures, shapes and sizes, and create your own pieces of art. Let us know how it turned out.

      

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    RECIPE: Coconut Cream Pie

    Today is National Coconut Cream Pie Day, and we’re going to bake one.

    A cream pie, or creme pie, is plain pastry or crumb pastry shell with a pudding filling. Banana, butterscotch, chocolate, and vanilla pudding are the most common fillings. A coconut cream pie mixes flaked coconut into a vanilla pudding base.

    Our recipe gives you options to customize your pie crust and filling:

  • Regular flaked coconut or toasted coconut
  • The optional addition of bananas or crushed pineapple
  • An optional whipped cream topping
  • Four different choices of crust: plain pastry, coconut, chocolate coconut or chocolate crumb
  •  
    Take a look at the recipe.

    Learn your pies. Chess pie? Shoofly pie? See the many different types of pies.

     
    A coconut cream pie topped with whipped
    cream and toasted coconut. Photo by
    Susabell | Dreamstime.
     
      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Have A Mint Julep


    A refreshing Mint Julep. Photo by Ampen |
    IST.

      Celebrate Happy Hour today with a mint julep as you watch the 137th Kentucky Derby at 6 p.m. ET (the feature stories begin at 4 p.m.). The mint julep has been the “unofficial” official drink at the Derby since 1938.

    Make it more fun by dressing up like the 150,000 fans at Churchill Downs—or at least wear a fancy hat—as you enjoy your cocktail and the race.

    The race track, in Louisville, Kentucky, was named for brothers John and Henry Churchill, who leased the land to their nephew, then president of the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Association. “Downs” is a British term for gently rolling hills.

    Called the fastest two minutes in sports, the first leg of the Triple Crown is only 1-1/4 miles.

    But back to the cocktails:

    The ingredients of a mint julep are simple: bourbon, mint, sugar and crushed or shaved ice—similar to a Mojito, which uses rum instead of bourbon. The gentry served their mint juleps in silver or pewter cups, but a tall glass does just fine.

     
    The drink originated in the South in the 18th century, and was also made with genever, aged gin. “Julep” is a Middle English term for a sweet drink, derived between 1350 and 1400 C.E. from the Arabic julab, which referred to rose water.

    Check out these two mint julep recipes.

      

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    MOTHER’S DAY: Cabernet Sauvignon Margarita Recipe

    An easy way to do something special for Mom is to serve her a cocktail created just for her.

    That was the thinking of Sauza Tequila, creator of the Mama Rita Margarita.

    Most moms enjoy a Margarita as well as a glass of wine, so here’s a twist that combines both.

    The recipe uses agave nectar instead of sugar for a lower-glycemic (and tastier) cocktail.

    > International Cabernet Sauvignon Day is celebrated the last Thursday Before Labor Day.

    > The history of Cabernet Sauvignon.

    > The history of the Margarita.

    > The history of the cocktail.
     
     
    RECIPE: THE MAMA RITA MARGARITA

    Ingredients For 1 Cocktail

  • 1-1/2 part silver tequila
  • 1/2 part Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 1 part orange liqueur (Grand Marnier, GranGala,
    triple sec, etc.)
  • 1/2 part agave nectar
  • 1 part fresh lime juice
  • Lime wheel or peel curl for garnish
  • Ice
  •  
    Preparation

    1. POUR all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass.

    2. SHAKE and strain into a martini glass and garnish with a lime slice.
     
     
    Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes, including the classic Margarita and many variations, by pulling down the menu in the right-hand column.

     
    [1] A Margarita with Cabernet Sauvignon (photo © Sauza Tequila).

    Bottle & Glass Of Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon
    [2] Use any Cabernet Sauvignon—although with a great producer like Mayacamas, you may wish to save it for drinking on its own (photo © Mayacamas Vineyards).

     

      
     
     

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    RECIPE: Colorful Spinach & Grapefruit Salad


    A terrific combination of flavors. Photo
    courtesy Melissas.com.

      Before citrus gives way to summer fruits, here’s a quick, colorful spring salad from Andrew Faulkner for Melissas.com, purveyor of exotic and hard-to-find fruits and vegetables.

    Sweet-tart grapefruit, tasty fennel, and tangy olive flavors come together with super healthy spinach leaves and grapefruit segments.

     
    RECIPE: SPINACH & GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

    Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, crushed
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 grapefruit, preferably sweeter variety such as pink or red grapefruit
  • 1 radicchio head (10 ounces) torn into bite-size pieces
  • 8 ounces baby spinach leaves
  • 1/2 cup Kalamata olives (or other brine-cured black olives), pitted
  •  
    Preparation

    1. CRUSH the fennel seeds with a mallet or the back of a large spoon.

    2. COMBINE the vinegar and fennel seeds in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

     
    3. PEEL and cut the grapefruits between the membranes to segment; remove the white pith from grapefruits. Stir the segments the into dressing. Let stand at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

    4. TOSS the radicchio, spinach and olives in bowl. Add grapefruit segments and dressing to coat. Serve.
     

    Find more of our favorite salad recipes.


      

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