I had always learned that white wines should be chilled.  Whenever I went to a restaurant I saw people sitting around with their chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or riesling tucked into buckets of ice.  Of course there is the classic picture of tuxedo-clad cool guy, Cary Grant or George Clooney depending on your generation, suavely lifting a bottle of champagne from a silver, ice-filled bucket to pour the wine into a tulip-shaped glass while being adored by a doe-eyed beauty.  So, I thought all white wines should be frosty.

            When my interest in wine was in its late infancy I would purchase a bottle of white wine, usually a California chardonnay, and put it into the refrigerator.  When my wife and I drank it the wine always disappointed.  It seemed to be harsh, flavorless, and bitter. I remember one January, when friends were coming to dinner, I decided that the problem was that the bottle was not cold enough, so I took my three bottles of Kendall Jackson Reserve chardonnay and put them into a snow bank by the front porch thinking that the extra winter kick would yield a truly awesome experience.  It was terrible… harsh and flavorless.  The wine was so bad I thought that we had gotten defective bottles, inhabited by some level of antifreeze and better suited for the radiator of my car than my guests’ glasses.  We grimly finished only two bottles.

 

            I put the surviving bottle in the refrigerator thinking that it would be better suited for cooking than drinking.  A week or two later we took the bottle out of this cold prison and decided to give it one last redemptive chance.  For some reason my wife and I did not drink it immediately but waited about half an hour, perhaps longer before eating.  To my surprise the wine burst with flavor.  Epiphany!!!  White wines do not have to be arctic-cold.  We experimented that evening and discovered that cool, not cold was the answer.

 

            I now understand that there is a distinct difference between ‘cool’ and ‘cold’.  Most white wines taste best at a temperature around 58^○ F.  The typical refrigerator compartment is designed to operate at about 38^○.  I had mistakenly confused cool with cold.  I had been drinking wine about twenty degrees colder than its optimal drinking temperature, hence the harsh tasteless slush I had given myself.  I have learned that it is OK to chill the typical white wine in the refrigerator (about an hour) or to keep it in the refrigerator and remove it forty-five minutes before serving.  This waiting time took the bottle to about the right temperature.

 

            Of course, this does not work of all white wines.  Champagne should be served cold, not chilled, and some sweeter, wines can survive being colder than its brethren and sisteren.  If you have been disappointed in your white wine, check its temperature, the problem may be in the fact that it is chilling out too much.  This is especially a problem in many restaurants where the white wines are kept in walk-in refrigerators, twenty degrees too cold, and then presented and served with an ice bucket.  You can tell if this is the case if the wine comes to you beaded with condensation.  It will be too cold.  I have learned to hold the bottle in my hand.  If it feels as if it kept company with the butter and carrots I know that it is probably much too cold.  I let it sit at the table for a while, and send the accompanying ice bucket back to the kitchen.

“Tomatillo (pronounced toe-mah-tee-yo), a primary ingredient in Latin American green sauce (salsa verde), means “little tomato” in Spanish — but these beauties pack a lot of flavor into their small containers. With a distinctly tart, almost lemony flavor, tomatillos enhance a broad range of dishes, from guacamole and appetizers to stews and steaks.”

As some of you may know I use my boyfriend T. as a guinea pig for new recipes. This past weekend I taught a class with Mexican influenced recipes, mostly highlighting the Tomatillo. I brought home leftovers and shared with him. After one bite he requested that I make this dish at home. I knew then that I had a hit on my hands. The second time I made it we used shredded chicken instead of the beef. This dish is also reheats very well.
*recipe adapted from epicurious.com

Beef Chiquiles

Yields- 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos husked, rinsed and halved

2 large garlic cloves

1 large jalapeñohalved lengthwise, stemmed and seeded

1/4 cup packed cilantro

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 cups shredded pepper Jack cheese (6 ounces)

1/2 cup queso fresco

1 scallion, sliced

One 6-ounce bag tortilla chips (8 cups) * We like the El Milagro brand of chips- very study, not too greasy

1/4 cup sour cream

1 pound flank steak- marinated and grilled*

*For the marinade:
4 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil

Make the Marinade
In a large bowl whisk together the garlic paste, the lime juice, the cumin, and the oil.

Add the steak to the marinade, turning it to coat it well, and let it marinate, covered and chilled, for at least 1 hour or overnight. Grill the steak, drained, on a well-oiled rack set about 5 inches over glowing coals or in a hot well-seasoned ridged grill pan over moderately high heat for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until it is just springy to the touch, for medium-rare meat. (Alternatively, the steak may be broiled on the rack of a broiler pan under a preheated broiler about 4 inches from the heat for 3 to 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare meat.) Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it stand for 10 minutes.Slice the steak thin across the grain on the diagonal and reserve

Make the Chilaquiles

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 450°. In a blender or food processor, puree the tomatillos, garlic, jalapeño and cilantro until smooth. In a large saucepan, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the cumin and coriander and cook over high heat until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add the tomatillo puree, bring to a boil and cook until the sauce loses its bright green color, 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a medium bowl, toss the beef with 3/4 cup of the pepper Jack, the farmer cheese, scallion and half of the tomatillo sauce; season with salt and pepper. In another bowl, toss the tortilla chips with the remaining sauce.
3. Spread half of the chips in an 8-by-11-inch baking dish; top with the beef and cover with the remaining tortilla chips. Don’t pack the chips down. Dollop the sour cream over the chips and sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 cup of pepper Jack. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is browned. Serve at once.

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Chef Alekka

 

My first experience with wine was one Thanksgiving over fifty-five years ago.  My grandfather had received a very lavish give from some French friends, a case of Cheval Blanc bordeaux.  As a treat he offered to share a bottle with the family. For me this meant about a tablespoon in a small glass.  My immediate reaction was “sour!”  I pretended to act sophisticated, suave, and urbane, but at twelve years old this was hard to pull off.  The lasting impact for me was that fermented grapes were equivalent to those other adult food follies: broccoli, asparagus, and liver.

 

Times and my tastes evolved.  In college, when my beer budget permitted, I tried on a debonair persona to impress my dates and, where Chapel Hill restaurants had wine, I ordered the only thing I recognized, Almaden rosé.  I found it to be tolerable, but, more importantly, thought that it made me look cool.  Coolness, not the wine, was the motivator.

 

After college I went into the Navy. This experience did not give me many opportunities to expand my wine vocabulary until my wife and I were transferred to Naples, Italy.  We lived there for three years.  Alekka, our pastry-chef daughter, was born there.  Now it is impossible to live in Italy without experiencing wine.  Indeed for the beginner there was a bewildering selection.  Wines we never heard of in the United States: Soave, Valpolicella, Amarone, Lagrima Christi, Barolo, Bardolino, and on and on.  It seemed that each village had its own wine and a festival to honor their local grapes.  I had no anchor other than Chianti; generally this is what we drank.  I do remember a Sicilian wine, a red Corvo that was tasty and had a more robust flavor, and the ubiquitous wines bottled by the Bolla company.  Overall, the outcome of this three-year experience was a fondness, not passion, for having wine with a meal.  Still, the breadth of my knowledge ranged to: white wine with white things and red wine with dark things.

 

On returning to the United States I found the beginning of the ground swell of the American wine passion.  I left the Navy and enrolled in graduate school.  My wife and I discovered Gallo Hearty Burgundy, a jug wine that fit both our tastes and budget.  We thought that we were drinking the equivalent to French burgundy, and no one told us otherwise.  Our guests thought we were pretty cultured, after all we had lived in Italy for three years.  Still, our preference for drinks focused on beer, bourbon, gin, and scotch.

 

Years passed and I cautiously expanded my wine vocabulary.  Slowly I recognized that I could distinguish between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, and that zinfandel was distinctly different from merlot.  As I took these baby steps I started to understand that wine both enhanced and was enhanced by the food with which it was paired.  Having grown up in an atmosphere that treated family meals as an important event, I became more active in trying to learn about the nature of wine and food.  I  read, tasted, and experimented.  In the past ten years I have begun to develop some confidence in my taste in wine.  I cannot afford the top bottles costing zillions of dollars, but I have touched a bottle of Lafite-Rothschild bordeaux .  It cost $1,050.00. I have seen a bottle of d’Yquem sauternes; cost $650.00.  I can only dream about tasting some of these wines but never expect to do so.  

 

I have even started collecting wine, not as an investment, but as a way to learn about differing flavors and profiles.  Several years ago I got a small windfall and bought a wine cellar, a large temperature and humidity-controlled refrigerator for storing my purchases.  My price ceiling for an expensive bottle of wine is $70.00 but mostly they fall into the $30 to $50 dollar range.  These are the wines for special meals with friends.  Daily my wife and I drink less expensive stuff and have fun experimenting with them, trying to match the wine with the meal.

 

As a teacher I believe that the educated person is not the person who knows everything, it is the person who is aware of what he does not know and knows how to find out the answers.  As I write this I am still learning how to find the answers and am enthusiastically looking for the right questions to ask.

As a child I had a friend E. whose father wore orthopedic shoes everyday. As kids do ,we would laugh and joke about them and fein embarrasment when he wore them. The irony of this is that these are almost the same exact shoes I have worn thoughout my career.
Working in a kitchen requires you to have a good sturdy set of shoes because you are standing on your feet 10-12 hours a day. You also need to keep in mind the slippy surfaces of the floor and the accidental knife being dropped…….by your foot.
I have gone through many brands of shoes in the kitchen and finally found the shoes that worked perfectly for me.
I bought my first pair of Dansko shoes (dansko.com) FIVE YEARS ago, and they have been with me since then. I am not a “shoe” person, so I have taken to wearing them almost everyday. They have a great arch support for my bad back and they are black which goes with everything. Thay are also slip resistant, water proof and very durable.
Last week I noticed a slight tear on the top of my right shoe. I pretended that it was not there, I love my shoes and I was in denial that the shoes were done. Today the rip is about one inch long and keeps growing bigger.
So it is time to retire my shoes and invest in another pair. Dansko has come a long way since I ordered my first pair so I can choose from a variety of colors and styles. But I think I might just stick to what I know and get my Black Sonja Stapled Clogs and call it a day.
Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka

“The Mission of Common Threads is to educate children on the importance of nutrition and physical well-being, and to foster an appreciation of cultural diversity through cooking.”

    I applied for a job with Common Threads, so I could become better aquainted with working with kids. I knew that this was a non-profit organization started by Art Smith (Oprah’s former Personal Chef) and that I would be teaching underpriviled kids who may not have experienced or eaten healty cooking. This is a FREE after school program that cycles every eight weeks and also has a three month ”summer camp” that includes gardening.
What happened in those eight weeks has made me think about and appreciate the foods I was fed in my youth and also come to be more comfortable teaching kids.

   Each week in class we would visit a different country and learn about the culture and foods that they ate. Then the kids would cook a meal, set the table, do dishes and eat as a group. What suprised me the most was the bond that I developed with “MY KIDS” a term I used when referring to them. On our last day, I had was sad to see them go, but I knew that in some small way I had a impact on their lives.

   Every year Common Thread has a HUGE fundraiser at the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Chicago. Many well known and well respected chefs from around the United States generously donate their time in suppport of the organization. As a chef instuctor I was asked to volunteer my time to work with a “out-of-town” chef for the event.
As you can see from the picture above I was paired with Tom Colicchio, owner of the famed Craft restaurants and Head Judge on “Top Chef”. That night raised over $400,000 for Commom Threads and I was proud to be a part of it.
   
  For more information on this organization please visit the website: commonthreads.org

Happy Cooking and Healthy Eating!
Chef Alekka

The Splendid Table (thesplendidtable.publicradio.org) is a radio show on National Public Radio dedicated to everything food related. The Host, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, has won numerous awards for her talk show including a 1999 James Beard award for “Best National Radio Show On Food”. She has also written many books that have also won awards. The women really knows her stuff.
This week they featured a BBQ spot that I have been going to for about 6 years. My all-time favorite form of Barbeque is from the Carolina’s, dry rubbed with little or no sauce except for some tangy vinegar, served with unleavened cornbread and cole slaw.
The Skylight Inn BBQ is a little hole-in-the-wall that we go to when visiting my grandmother who has lived in the same house in Grifton, North Carolina since 1956.
I love the BBQ so much that last time I visited I bought two pounds of barbeque “to-go” to bring back to Chicago. The airport security in Greenville saw the package and waved me through without question, as if they understood my need for this Carolina delicacy.
So, tune your radios the your local NPR station and head the the eastern part of the Carolina’s and enjoy the great sounds and tastes this great land has to offer!
SKYLIGHT INN BBQ
4618 Lee St.
Ayden, N.C
(252)-746-4113
Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka

My daughter, Alekka, has asked me to write about wine to inform her clients at Give Me Some Sugar. I admit that my wife and I enjoy wine and have a selection every evening with supper, but I don’t consider myself to be a wine expert, more of an interested amateur. I am not a wine collector and cannot afford to buy the bottles of burgundy and Bordeaux that are highly touted. On the other hand, I may have fun talking about pairing wine with food, a less well understood topic. I really enjoy a well-crafted meal complimented with a good wine, so maybe this is where I will go from time to time.

I could also muse about my newly acquired interest in getting my 60+ year-old body in shape. Biking the local Pittsburgh trails and working out (wheezing out) at a local gym has become surprisingly enjoyable. I have to admit that I don’t like the thumpy music they play over the sound system. I prefer to listen to classical music on my iPod while I stretch, pull, grunt, and shove weighted things for an hour. Maybe my direction on this blog will be comments on pairing music with weights.

I guess the real focus will be an eclectic mixture of thoughts and observations. I cannot compete with my youngest daughter’s journal/blog and won’t engage in raving about politics, religion, or global warming. I will just post occasional thoughts and reflections on whatever moves me.

 

Dennis Sweeney - (aka “Dr. Dennis”)

I had my first public speaking engagement the other day that did not involve cooking. I was asked to speak at an “Ask The Expert” day at an surburban high school sponsored by Junior Achievement.
I was very excited to be able to share my WEALTH of knowledge and years of experience in the industry to students who would hang on my every word.
I was informed that if I needed any AV equipment for Power Point it would be ready for me in the class room. I have never used Power Point in my life and decided that cookbooks that I have used throughout the years would be the power in my points that day.
Arriving at the school I realized that it has been over 15 years since I have set foot in a high school. I was never in the “cool” crowd, but that day in my full uniform, I was treated like a star.
After being checked in through SECURITY and being escorted to my first class I was ready to blow them away with my sage advice and stories about my 20 years in the industry.
Turns out the 9 am “Foods” class is an elective for students to pass and most of the kids in this class were barely awake. The only questions I got from this class were the ones that were handed to them to ask as an assigment to be completed for that day.
My second class was “Advanced Foods”. Here I was faced with 20 students who were there by choice. After my introduction and brief speech I opened the floor for questions:
Q:”What is the hardest thing about being in the restaurant business?”
A:” Missing holidays with my family, long hours and working in the weekends”
Q: “Who is you favorite chef on the Food Network?”
A: “Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa and Alton Brown for his food science”
Q:”What do you think about Rachel Ray?”
A: no comment
Q: “What is you favorite thing to cook/eat?”
A: ” I could not go one day without chocolate and I like to cook simple, fast and great tasting food.”
They asked so many questions that we had to stop because the bell rang for the next period.
I left the school hoping that I made some small impact on these kids, told them the reality of the restaurant business, and encouraged them to try new and different foods.
This morning I received an e-mail for our business website:

Name: Keven
class: none
comments: Dear Chef Alekka,
  You attend East Leyden High School on February 6, 2008.  I am in one of the classes that you spoke to.    I want to thank you for coming out and talking with us. You did a great job on telling the truth behind owning a business. Which  makes me want to do the same.  Once again thank you, Chef Alekka.  I learned a lot.  So, good luck in your business.

Guess I did have a small impact on the future business owners of America.
Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka

For some reason it will not quit snowing here! Once you think that the snow has FINALLY stopped, the sky drops another six inches to remind you of who is REALLY in charge.
For this reason I have a lot of free time on my hands, our clients with Give Me Some Sugar cancelled their party due to weather and my Wednesday cooking class with kids had a “snow day” .
So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite blogs I read when I am house bound:

BLOGS I READ FOR FUN:

1. www.shakenmama.com- this is done by one of my oldest and best friends, E. She has the cutest two year old who they call “Chebbles” is about the have her second child. I have money that she will deliver on my birthday. When I have had a bad day at work I watch the video of Amelia on a sled: scroll down to Wednesday, December 12th to see!
http://www.shakenmama.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=50

2. www.myevilheart.blogspot.com- this is my younger sister who is an amazing writer. She is also the copy editor for Give Me Some Sugar which helps for these posts and editing our website.

3. www.perezhilton.com- Love the celebrity gossip!

BLOGS I READ ABOUT FOOD:

1. epicurious.com- This is a great site for recipes. I like using the Advanced Search for recipes that are seasonal or have to have a specific ingredient.

2. cookingandeatinginthewindycity.blogspot.com- Erin was in one of my cooking classes recently. She LOVES to cook and writes about it with great enthusiasm! She tries out new recipes and publishes the results with pictures. I like that she buys organic produce, some of which she has never used, and experiments with it.

3. theamateurgourmet.com- I have to thank Erin for this one. I am new to this site, but it is written by a guy named Adam who is a writer who lives in New York. He also experiments with recipes and gives hysterical recommendations about food and gadgets.

4. cooksillustrated.com- this one is not free, you have to sign up, but it is well worth it. America’s Test Kitchen is a real kitchen that test’s ONE recipe about 57 times until they get it PERFECT! They also test every type of cooking utensil, pot, pan, knife……I could go on and on. I have been suprised to find that a $6 grater works just as well as a $25 one. I also subscibe to the magazine ,Cooks Illustrated, for foolproof recipes and kitchen tips sent in by readers.

5. grubhub.com- the perfect solution for this weather! Just put in your zip code and state and they tell you what restaurants deliver in your area. They also provide menus and coupons.

I think it has FINALLY stopped snowing, now I can leave the house. I am hungry after writing about food.
Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
This year started out with a bang for our company with my apperance on WGN-TV here in Chicago! More about this later.
       Today I had to go get fingerprinted for a freelance job teaching kids healthy eating habits. I have never had to do this, so I thought it would be like I see on TV with the ink pad and paper. Not in the 2008 computerized age.
First off it is 60 degrees here in Chicago and the office I was in was very hot. Second I have what we call in the industry as “hot-hands” so my hands get really sweaty when I am hot.
      All of this combined made the normally 5 minute procedure last about 30. The procedure called for me to put my fingers on a computerized screen and hold them there while it registered on another computer. This was not going so well, so I had to spray rubbing alcohol on my fingers to make then less greasy. The aroma made the small office smell like an operating room, and the alcohol got into the many small cuts on my fingers which BURNED!
       This went okay until I had to do each finger individually. The person doing the test showed me a “normal” fingerprint with the swirls and circles. Mine just ended up being a black blob with some circles.
It turns out that this is normal for someone in my profession. After years of cutting and burning my fingers my fingerprints are a mess and almost non-exsistant, the tester compared it with someone who had played guitar most of their life.
      They eventually got some readable prints and I was set on my way smelling like someone had poured a bottle of rubbing alcohol on me.
So in honor of the day I am adding a recipe for some Finger Lickin’ Chicken Wings
Happy Cooking!
Chef Alekka

PS. I got this recipe off the internet at www.cooks.com

BARBEQUED CHICKEN WINGS
18 chicken wings 1/2 c. honey 1/4 c. soy sauce 1 tbsp. catsup 1 tbsp. oil Crushed garlic 1/2 tsp. ginger Cut wings into 3 parts, discard tips. Sprinkle cut wings with salt and pepper. Put in baking dish. Mix sauce with above ingredients and pour over chicken. Bake at 400 degrees until sauce thickens, then another 30 minutes at 300 degrees. Baste with sauce OFTEN.