October 27th is National Potato Day. For your nibbling pleasure, we present a classic of French cuisine.

Pommes Anna (photo #1), sometimes known in English by the less melodic Anna Potatoes, is a French potato casserole beloved for its crispy edges. It is presented as a beautiful round, then served in slices.

It’s a special-occasion dish (think ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas) that can also be served for a family dinner.

Slices of waxy potatoes are overlapped in a casserole dish, covered with clarified butter and baked. For maximum crispness, the entire contents are turned upside down three-fourths of the way through cooking (the recipe below skips this step but if you’re comfortable flipping the entire casserole, go for it).

Some people season the dish with garlic and rosemary. In the recipe below, the folks at Castello Cheese cooked the potatoes in a rectangular dish to cut into “fingers” (photo #2), and added their specialty: blue cheese. You can substitute gruyère, or use half and half of two cheeses.

Today’s tip: Serve this rich, buttery potato dish as first course, placing a slice on a plate with a green salad tossed with Dijon vinaigrette.

The clean, crispness of the salad and acidity of the vinaigrette are a good counterpoint to the buttery, melt-in-your-mouth potatoes. Provide a peppermill for a spicy accent.

We like to put our food in historic context. So first…
 
 
THE HISTORY OF POMMES ANNA

Pommes Anna (pronounced PUM AH-nuh) was the creation of Adolf Dugléré, chef at a Parisian restaurant called Café Anglais.

The restaurant opened in 1802 at the corner of the Boulevard des Italiens and the Rue de Marivaux, in the 13th arrondissement. It was named in honor of the Treaty of Amiens, a peace accord signed between Britain and France.

Its early clientele were working folks: coachmen and domestic servants. It later became frequented by performers and patrons of the nearby opera house.

In 1822 the new proprietor, Paul Chevreuil, turned Café Anglais into a fashionable restaurant with a reputation for roasted and grilled meats. It was after the engagement of chef Adolphe Dugléré that the cuisine achieved high acclaim, and was then frequented by the wealthy and the aristocracy.

The interior of the building was elaborately decorated with furniture in mahogany and walnut woods, and mirrors with gold leaf patina. There were 22 private rooms and lounges.

One food historian noted that “…the Anglais was a great supping place, the little rabbit hutches of the entresol [mezzanine] being the scene of some of the wildest and most interesting parties given by the great men of the Second Empire” [source].

Pommes Anna is just one the chef’s enduring contributions to French gastronomy. The dish was named after Anna Deslions (photo #4), an actress and famed courtesan of the Second Empire (1852-1870), who held regular gatherings at the café. (One of her patrons was Prince Napoléon, cousin of Napoléon III [source].)

Anna is said to be the model for Emile Zola’s Nana. She was no elegant courtesan, though. She was rough, vulgar, very low-born…and made no apologies.

She was no beauty either: plain-looking and chunky, not talented as an actress but with “something that takes the place of everything else.” Thinly-veiled, Zola describes her as having “the deadly smile of a man-eater” [source].

What happened to her? She blew through a fortune in cash, gold and jewels, was dropped by millionaire after millionaire, and ultimately became yesterday’s news.

But in her heyday, she was a good customer of Café Anglais, and she ostensibly loved her potatoes and butter. Hence: Pommes Anna.
 
 
RECIPE: POMMES ANNA WITH EXTRA CREAMY DANISH BLUE CHEESE

With or without gruyère, this dish is has been called Scalloped Anna Potatoes in the U.S. Some restaurateurs also call it Anna Potato Pancake.

We prefer its more elegant given name: Pommes Anna (photo #2).

Ingredients for 4 servings

 
Preparation

[2] Pommes Anna with added cheese, a recipe from Castello (below). Serve it with an herb or mesclun salad.

[3] Individual Pommes Anna have been attributed to Escoffier. Here’s a recipe from Lena’s Cuisine.

[4] Anna Deslions, the inspiration for Pommes Anna (photo courtesy Victorian Paris | WordPress).

[5] The “real” Anna Deslions was a bit more common (photo courtesy Regis Iglesias).

2. ADD the remaining butter and cheese cubes to a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until the cheese melts.

3. ARRANGE the potato slices in the pan overlapping each other; brush with the butter/cheese mixture and season with salt and pepper as you go. Cover with parchment paper or a lid, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Test with a skewer to see if the potatoes are tender.

4. SERVE immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. To reheat, turn the pommes out of the pan and with a sharp knife, cut into the desired pieces, and warm in a 325°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
  

[1] Somewhat spooky: squid ink linquine with baby octopus. Here’s the recipe from Jultchik (needs translation).

[2] Squid ink cavatelli maya be the creepiest pasta choice: Cavatelli look like grubs or maggots. This dish is from Marlow Bistro in New York City.

[3] Here, squid ink shells are an option. These are in citrus-butter sauce, from Kindred restaurant in North Carolina. We added our own spooky touch by dotting the top with rounded spoonfuls of gooey-green avocado purée and served the dish with optional red chile flakes.

[4] Squid Ink Risotto. Here’s the recipe from Chef Andrew MacKenzie | Great British Chefs.

Whether you’re cooking for a family or a gourmet crowd, squid ink pasta is especially noteworthy during Halloween season.

The pasta needs no special garnish—squash or carrots sliced into pumpkin shapes, radish or hard-boiled egg “eyeballs”e.g.—to have a holiday impact (but…feel free).

Squid ink pasta and risotto are elegant at any time of the year.

One of our go-to party dishes: squid ink angel hair pasta topped with pan-fried scallops and pink vodka sauce. It’s simple to make, with high optics.
 
 
WHAT IS SQUID INK?

Squid is an English language misnomer for what is actually cuttlefish, or seppia in Italian.

Cuttlefish are cephalopods like squid, but are much a smaller and have a bony internal shell. They taste like squid, but are distant cousins.

Cuttlefish thrive in warmer waters, such as the Mediterranean. They’ve long been a staple food along the coastlines of Greece, Italy and Spain.

Since earlier generations could afford to waste nothing, uses for every part of everything were pursued.

Cephalopods, including squid and cuttlefish, have an ink sac. The ink is a dark pigment, released into water as an escape mechanism.

We don’t know how many thousands of years ago the ink was first used in food, but we do know that in Greco-Roman times the cuttlefish was a source for ink. It is mentioned by Aristotle.

The cuttlefish provided:

 
Cuttlefish Ink Vs. Squid Ink

Cuttlefish ink is actually better for food color: It’s more viscous than squid ink; and far better on the palate, according to those who have made sauces with both.

Italian cookbook author notes the difference between the two:

“To the Italian palate, the harsh, pungent ink is the least desirable part of the squid. As Venetian cooks have shown, it’s only the mellow, velvety, warm-tasting ink of cuttlefish—seppie—that is suitable for pasta sauce, risotto, and other black dishes.” (Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, 1992)

The ink is also used in a popular sauce for seafood dishes and pasta. It contains chunks of seppia, olive oil, sautéed garlic and/or onions, tomato paste, white wine, parsley and pepper. Here’s a recipe.

(Culinary note: In Italy, grated cheese is never served with seafood pasta dishes.)
 
 
MAKING YOUR OWN SQUID INK PASTA

If you make your own pasta, you can buy the ink.

We’ve been able to buy squid ink pasta dough at a local ravioli shop, and have also bought their squid ink ravioli filled with pumpkin.

It’s a great Halloween surprise: cut into the black pillow and get an explosion of orange! For maximum color impact, place them the cooked pasta on top of the sauce.
 
 
SQUID INK PASTA RECIPES

A while back, we published an article on how to repuspose carrot peelings. Why throw them out, when you can turn them into something delicious, packed with nutrients?

The same is true with the leafy green carrot tops (photo #1).

Why buy freshly-harvested carrots at the farmers market, only to cut off and toss the glorious, frilly leaves?

 
In America, we have too much food and we waste much of what would be readily consumed elsewhere. Think of how good you’ll feel when you do what top chefs are doing all over the country: turning kitchen scraps into good food.

If you don’t want to eat the tops, stems and leaves yourself, at least find the nearest neighbor with a bunny, gerbil or hamster (or, a home cook who loves to make soup).

Today’s focus is those lovely, leafy carrot tops.

First off: There is a long-circulating myth that carrot tops are poisonous. They are not poisonous!

Some people are allergic to carrot tops, just as some are allergic to avocado, corn, eggs, even red meat.

While some vegetable parts are toxic*, especially if eaten raw, enjoy carrot tops raw or cooked to your heart’s content. Here’s a longer explanation.

Ready To Cook With Carrot Tops?

Think of carrot tops as parsley or dill: Use them in the same way.

Carrot tops have a very concentrated carrot flavor with a bit of bitterness. If you don’t like the bitterness, blanch them for a moment.
 
 
10 WAYS TO USE CARROT TOPS

1. Chimichurri

Chimichurri is the national sauce (salsa) of Argentina. Very popular with steak (Argentina’s national protein as it were), it is made from parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, vinegar and red pepper flakes.

 
2. Gremolata

Gremolata is a popular Italian condiment for meat, fish and other foods: the bitterness of parsley with the bright acidity of lemon and the zestiness of garlic. You can substite other bitter herbs…or carrot tops.

 
3. Harissa

Harissa is both a flavor enhancer and a condiment. In Tunisia, Morocco and across North Africa, harissa flavors almost all of the local cuisine.

It’s main ingredient is hot chiles, but in this recipe, carrot tops are added in to create a carrot soup garnish (it could be any thick purée or creamy soup).

 
4. Hummus

Add even more nutrition to the popular dip and spread, which people have been enjoying since the 12th century or earlier (the history of hummus).

[2] While the carrots roast, turn the tops into a sauce. Here’s the recipe from Jessica In The Kitchen.

[3] Add carrot tops to the hummus; then dip carrot sticks for a double-carrot snack. Here’s the recipe from The Almond Eater.

[4] You can snip the carrot greens onto the tops of stews, grains and vegetables. Here, they’re combined with spices to make “carrot top harissa.” Here’s the recipe from What’s Cooking Good Looking.

Substitute the carrot leaves for basil or other herb. The stems are tougher, but when ground into a pesto they work well.

Consider combining the carrot leaves with basil, spinach, arugula or other green.

 
6. Salad

You can snip raw carrot tops into any green salad, or use them to add flavor to a protein salad (chicken, egg, tuna, etc.) instead of dill or celery leaves.

Dress your green salad or bean salad with them: Add minced carrot tops to your vinaiagrette (we especially like them with a Dijon vinaigrette).

In these two recipes, a chickpea salad is an ideal host for carrot greens. You can do the same with a bean salad: three bean, green bean, etc.

 
7. Sautéed Greens

Broccoli rabe, collards, kale, mustard greens: Any greens can be sautéed with carrot tops and garlic in olive oil.

 
8. Sandwiches

Add the carrot greens along with lettuce, or instead of it. We frequently use arugula, spinach, basil or watercress instead of lettuce. The carrot tops fit right in.

They also have a place on a sandwich or burger without lettuce: with a sliced of tomato, pimento or sundried tomatoes in olive oil.

 
9. Soups & Stews

Add carrot tops for flavor. You can even make a carrot top soup!

 
10. Wild Card!

 
When you present your recipes to family and friends, let them know you used carrot tops. They’ll be impressed, and tipped off to the fact that something bound for the scrap heap is better on the plate!

________________

*Raw kidney beans, lima beans, rhubarb leaves; stone fruit pits; apple seeds; and others. Most will just make you ill, but can kill people with compromised systems. The worst is unprocessed cassava. “One pound of bitter, unproccessed cassava will kill a cow and has killed humans in the past,” says an article on the topic.

It may look innocent, but there’s 1/4 cup bourbon in it (photo courtesy Broma Bakery).

Thanks to Sarah Fennel at Broma Bakery for this seasonal snack.

Before you dig in, check out the history of milkshakes—originally alcoholic drinks!

Sarah restores the alcohol by adding bourbon to the shake.

Prep time is 10 minutes.

RECIPE: PUMPKIN MILKSHAKE

Ingredients For 2 Milkshakes

1. RIM the glasses. Place the graham cracker crumbs on a plate. Dip the rims of the glasses 1/4 inch into a saucer of water, then dip the wet rim into the crumbs and twist to coat.

2. DRIZZLE the warm caramel sauce up and down the insides of the glasses. Set aside.

3. COMBINE the remainder of the ingredients in a blender. Blend on high until fully combined. Pour into serving glasses and serve immediately.
  

October 24th is National Good & Plenty Day, celebrating the oldest branded candy in the U.S.

It’s an American version of the licorice pastilles that have been made in Europe for hundreds of years.

Good & Plenty candies are narrow capsule shapes of sweet black licorice, coated in both bright pink and white hard candy shells (both colors taste the same).
 
GOOD & PLENTY HISTORY

The licorice candies were first produced by the Quaker City Confectionery Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1893 (the brand is now owned by Hershey Foods, after changing ownership multiple times).

The box and its contents have a percussive quality. Since there’s a lot of air space in the box (it’s perhaps half full), shaking the box creates a cadence that’s fun. It’s fun, also led to the kids’ slogan disparaging the low fill:

Good & Plenty,
Hardly Any!

Evidently, Good & Plenty executives or their advertising agency also noticed the percussive quality, which sounded like the chug-a-chug produced by the pushrods that linked the wheels on older trains.

More than 50 years after the candy was introduced, the brand developed a cartoon character, Choo Choo Charlie, an engineer on a steam locomotive.

Charlie shook the box to make the sound, with this jingle (to the tune of a popular folk song, “The Ballad of Casey Jones”):

Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good & Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Charlie says “Really rings my bell!”
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Don’t know any other candy that I love so well!
The brand has extended to Good & Fruity, in blue raspberry, cherry, lemon, lime and orange, with colored candy shells to match.

Try either variety as a cupcake garnish, or on top of ice cream or sorbet.

[2] The pink and white capsules may look delicate, but they pack a licorice punch (photo courtesy Hershey’s).

[3] The licorice core (photo courtesy Hershey’s).