My food crush: Reethika

I have no delusions about being a restaurant reviewer. I doubt I could write something so sincere and inspiring about a restaurant as this review by Tigers & Strawberries. After reading it, I went to Reethika as quickly as I could. That never happens.

My words may not be able to persuade you as well as other Columbus restaurant reviewers, but just looking at these pictures makes me want to get back there for dinner and lunch and dinner and lunch and...

My favorites:

I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the secrets of their Gobi Manchurian. 

Fried spinach leaves aka "veggie crack"

Aloo Palak: You know the potatoes that someone's mama would fry in the same pan as the porkchops? This is like those. But vegetarian. And with spinach. And amazing spices.

Hyderabadi Chicken Curry - so moist and perfect in every way.

There is probably a fine line between an appreciation of delicious food and gluttony but when I sit down at a table at Reethika, I forget what the point of a statement like that might be. I mean, I order a couple orders of the same appetizer. I order extra entrees to go. I eat everything that gets delivered to our table. I appreciate all that this restaurant has to offer in a gluttonous sorta way. 

But don't trust my words and gluttonous pictures. 

Do you want more Reethika pictures? Try here.

Getting out of my head

I get very nervous when taking pictures of strangers for money. 

I learned a hard lesson about taking something that you love to do for yourself and making it into something you do for others on their dime. It took me several years to want to play with food after leaving the life of a professional cook. I don't want to feel unanchored again.

I think the difference between paid and hobby is in the expectations.

Nobody has them when I just show up on my own with a camera in hand. I choose what fills my viewfinder. I can play as much or as little as I want.  

Expectations exist when I am hired. 

This is what goes through my head every single time:

I remember that failure of a day when I tried to be a second shooter in a crazy situation with a dying camera.

I wonder how it would feel if someone submited my photos to http://youarenotaphotographer.com/ 

I worry about the critics. The people that say "your camera takes nice shots."

That Facebook conversation I had with a jerk "professional" photographer that I held hands with in junior high. On his business's FB page, he argued that just because someone owns an expensive camera does not mean they have any right or ability to take away from his business. As he said, "Just because I own a few tools, doesn't mean that I should start charging people to frame their house or shingle their roof."

Jerk.

There is a similarly disparaging conversation constantly cycling about caterers versus "real chefs"; adobe creative suite tinkerers versus "real designers." (We, as a people, sure do like to play the better than/less than game.)

As I drive to meet a client, I wonder what makes someone a professional.

The answer is right there in the question, isn't it?  Being professional. Delivering a product, whether it be jpegs or a plate of food, that I am proud to put my name on.

When the nerves and doubt attack, I turn the camera away from the paying model and do what I do best: play. And later, in the safety of my own home, I can see the progression from a nervous person with an expensive camera to a photographer that knows a few things.

I'm reluctant to consider doing this full time for a variety of reasons - almost all are noted here. But the more "play" appears on my prep list, the more my confidence in being creative for other people increases. 

(These photos are a few of the stolen moments while on the job. There are more here. When I look at them, I don't always see perfection, but I can feel myself letting go of doubt.)

Cronut Dog

Alternate title: Jim is a genius. 

Whims and Nutella and Crepes

I need to empty my kitchen cupboards. The very cupboards that are so full of things that normal people just don't have lying around the house. The cupboards that require a hope and a helmet to open because they are bursting with two types of tapioca, a hunk of mexican chocolate, every type of legume ever identified, nuts galore (perhaps I am a squirrel?), and every item that was ever created and infused with truffle (buy the oil, skip the honey). Those cupboards.

I also need some new menu items at Chez Djupe. I'm bored.

This is what I decided to make:

Nutella. Homemade Nutella. Many different ways.

First thing you need to know about homemade Nutella: This needs to be done a few hours before the hunger strikes.

Second thing you need to know about homemade Nutella: This recipe makes a whole lotta Nutella. It has a short shelf life too. If you don't like sharing with friends, cut the recipe in half.

Third thing you need to know about homemade Nutella: It is more delicious and satisfying than the original and easily adapted to fit your diet, your pantry ingredients, your whims and fancies.

I wanted Nutella crepes. The prep list for this craving should be: 

1. make crepe batter; 
2. make nutella and let it refrigerate for an hour or more; 
3. make your crepes and fill'em up.

Nutella

I adapted David Lebovitz's version that was adapted from the Encyclopédie du Chocolat under the direction of Frédéric Bau.

I substitute enough ingredients when I make this recipe, that I try to stick with weight measurements instead of cups, etc. If you don't own a scale, click through to David's version.

This is a substitution friendly recipe. I write more about this at the bottom.

1.5 ounces almonds, whole, sliced or otherwise, but preferably not blanched

5.75 ounces hazelnuts

~

1 3/4 cup whole milk (I love Snowville Creamery)

1.25 ounces powdered milk (or instant dry milk - which is not quite as powdery)

3 Tablespoons honey (you can use more or less, depending on how sweet your chocolates are)

pinch of salt

~

5-6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

5-6 ounces milk chocolate, chopped (David Lebovitz recommends choosing one that is at least 30% cacao solids)

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Toast those nuts until browned (on separate sheet trays because they toast at different rates) for 10-15 minutes, shaking occasionally. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins from the hazelnuts. I want to tell you that I just rubbed them between my hands and the skins fell off, but since I am talking about nuts, that seems wholly inappropriate. Some people fold them into a towel and rub vigorously. I was not some people.
2. Bring both types of milk, honey and salt to a boil. Remove from heat.
3. Melt chocolates - some people use a microwave to do so, I use a metal pan over a pot of simmering water.
4. In a food processor, blend the nuts until they are as smooth as possible. Add chocolate and process until blended. Add milk mixture and process until everything is completely blended.
5. Strain your nutella mixture and store in jars. Your nutella may seem very thin and liquidy at first, but it will thicken after it has been refrigerated for a few hours.
6. When you are not eating your nutella in crepes, on banana bread, on shortbreads, from a spoon, knife or fork, then you should keep it in the fridge where it will keep for at least a week. I threw a jar in the freezer to see how that holds up - I will update this once I have some answers.

Okay, now that I have given you a starting place, let's talk substitutions.

• Use the almonds, or replace with hazelnuts, cashews, etc. Our completely hazelnut version of Nutella (the left spoon in that first picture) was not quite as mellow as the version with almonds (the lighter version on the right), but it was still mighty awesome.
• Use bittersweet chocolate or substitute with semi-sweet (and decrease the honey). For one version, I used extra bittersweet chocolate and added a bit more honey and it was still delicious. 
• Use a low fat milk, a low fat powdered milk or stick with the full fat versions OR substitute both milks for a nut milk and make this VEGAN. (If you are one of those people that feels compelled to talk about bacon whenever you hear vegan, then maybe we should stop a minute and think how much awesome complexity that extra nut flavor could add.) 
• Whatever you do, make sure you smell that powdered milk before you use it. If it smells bad - from cheesy to rotten chicken-ish - throw it out and buy fresh.

Sweet Crepes

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

6 Tablespoons water

1 cup flour (all-purpose or pastry flour)

pinch of table salt

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 Tablespoons sugar (omit if you want savory crepes)

1 teaspoon vanilla (omit if you want savory crepes)

1-2 Tablespoons limoncello, blood orangecello or your favorite fruity liqueur (totally optional but definitely omit if you want savory crepes)

1. Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth - about 10 seconds.
2. Refrigerate your batter for at least 2 hours and up to a few days. (The resting time in the refrigerator allows the air bubbles to work out & the gluten to relax which means your crepes should be less likely to tear while you are cooking and more likely to be delicate)
3. Heat your crepe pan, non-stick skillet (with very few scratches so that the batter doesn't stick), cast iron skillet, or tortilla pan over medium heat. Lightly butter the pan (the butter should sizzle but not brown).
4. Add crepe batter to the pan while gently rolling from side to side so that the batter spreads itself to a uniform thinness.
5. After about 30 seconds, the edges will have a few bubbles and look done. Spread your nutella, fruit or other toppings on the top 1/3 of the crepe circle.
6. Gently fold your crepe in half or quarters and move gently to a plate. Or roll it like a stuffed cigar. Or make a crepe burrito. 

Or you could just eat your nutella on banana bread. Twitter friends suggested that "a spoon, strawberries, shortbread & flesh are the best conductors of nutella." or to eat it "w/a spoon, w/a fork, w/a knife, w/ur finger" The final Twitter words of wisdom on this subject: "It won't be good with olives or pickles. I think everything else is a GO."

Things I might just love

I have a hard time closing browser windows on things I like.

I know that if I bookmark it, it will get lost in the piles of bookmarks.

If I tweet it, I won't ever find it again.

If I share it on FB, it will take forever to see "older posts" until it floats up to the top.

If I print it, it will get lost in the piles that I move from room to room. 

I know I am not the only one drowning in information streams. 

This is my corner of the interwebs. This is where I am keeping the things I love and want to always remember. (I didn't take any of these photos, videos or design any of the lovelies. My only role has been curating.)

1. This song. This group.

2. This house.

3. I think I would love this book.

4. These words in this poem:

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!

and

She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing did we make.)

5. I don't normally love the flowery patterns, curlycues and mismatched fonts but I do here.

6. I love playing with food. This looks like fun.

Valentine's Day

I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I'm not a bitter, unromantic, anti-Hallmark, heartless girl. Really. 

For a chunk of my life, this was the night of turning two tops quickly; then it was a night of staying on top of a full rack of tickets.

As far as Valentine's Day goes, my love life was always with food. 

Well, there was something more than food. For more than a decade, I had a standing Valentine's Day date with my OB/GYN. She always copped a feel.

Now that my life is not lived in restaurants, I have an even more bizarre reaction to this day. I spend most of the time leading up to it wondering if I should side with the bitter, anti-consumer holiday crowd or if I could pull off being in love with love. 

And then it is Valentine's Day and I am happy that this is a special day for some, sad that some people are feeling like an outsider or alone, and relieved that the stores are not replacing heart decorations with Christmas trees.

I hope you feel loved every day of the year and compelled to tell the object(s) of your affection whenever you damn well please. 

These photos were taken while meandering around the North Market, where love actually is all around.

My own love affair with good food continues on...

7.37 gallons

or 118 cups;

or 1 entire shelf of a deep freezer;

or 7 liters of vodka; 1 case of oranges; 30 pounds of sugar; 3 gallons of Snowville Creamery milk; 1 cup of whiskey; and vanilla;

or 9 days;

or plenty of gifts to leave in friends' and family's freezers;

or 5 blog posts; 

or a little over 29 quarts;

Any way you try to quantify it, we have a lot of blood orangecello. And it is finally finished.

As always, I want to share credit for all of the work and photos with my love, Paul.

Envy me.

As I am lucky in the friend and food department.

Plum cakes and plum cake donuts aplenty. 

Thank you, Lori.

Oh and happy plum something something day to everyone!

These are a few of my fairly recent favorite things

Random thoughts about food from the hours I have spent patiently waiting to eat Slow-baked beans with kale:

• I've never used so much tomato paste in one recipe.
• Not counting garbanzo and green beans, I had never eaten a bean until after I graduated from college.
• One of the first things I tried to cook for my husband (who was a vegan at the time) was this black bean "hummus", corn and roasted tomato pizza (there was no recipe). It was easily the least delicious thing I have ever ever cooked. He ate a whole slice.
• That was my first bite of black beans (I was 25). It was also my last for three years because it took a while to get that bad bean memory out of my mouth.
• Love doesn't make bad things taste better.
• Like the rest of you, when I cook beans, I am chanting: 

Beans, beans, what a wonderful fruit;

the more you eat, the more you toot;

the more you toot, the better you feel;

you should eat beans for every meal."

• I didn't see kale without an orange slice twisted so unartfully on top until 2008. That means I didn't know kale could actually be eaten until 2008.
• Kale chips are wonderful when you sprinkle a little apple cider over them before baking.
• I like to eat.
• My next "big" meal cooked in a pot will be one of my favorites from the Showcase of Crusted Arts: Crab Pot Pie with Pimento Cheese Biscuits. 
• It is a bit odd to use my big yellow pot for something other than frying things up in a pan.
• A reporter for the local paper asked me why I make my own butter and it felt like someone asked me why I breathe air. 
• There is no butter in this dish so maybe I should make some bisquits.
• Today, there were Twitter conversations about whether people say soda or pop; pronouncing see-ment or suh-ment; what to call winter hats;  what people call stove burners; subs, grinders, heros or hoagies; coo-pon or cyu-pon; etc. But nobody talked about how to spell bisquits or biscuits or biscquits or biskeets.
• If you make this recipe for slow baked beans with kale, you should really arrange to be out of the house for the last hour and half of baking because oh my goodness, the sounds of my stomach growling are preventing anyone from doing anything.