The Hartstone Inn in Camden has won the 2009 Achievement of Excellence Award from the American Culinary Federation, an organization for professional chefs.

The award, which recognizes establishments that exemplify commitment to food service in their marketplace, will be presented at the organization’s national convention in July in Orlando. Attending will be Patrick O’Connell, chef-owner of The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, and Stephanie Izard, winner of season four of “Top Chef.”

Michael Salmon is the chef at the Hartstone. He owns the inn with his wife, Mary Jo, and runs the dining room and an award-winning wine cellar.

[Source]

This Italian recipe is a traditional dish of the autumnal period in Lombardy; it is made with veal meat in an only piece and red wine. The better piece of veal to use for this recipe is called “Cappello del Prete”, this piece is obtain from the shoulder of the veal, it has a long shape and it is a lean meat ideal for roast, boiled and brasato; therefore the better Italian wine is a red wine of good acidity like the Barbera d’Oltrepò or Dolcetto d’Ovada. It is an easy recipe to prepare but it needs two day of preparation in particular one night during which the veal meat is soaked in the red wine and the following morning for the cooking. The cooking should be slow and on a low flame so the meat absorb slowly the red wine and its taste. This dish can be served alone or better if it is accompanied with Polena and the better one is the Polenta of Bergamo.

Ingredients:

1 kg. of veal meat (a only piece) the better piece is called “ Cappello del prete”
1 carrot chopped
1 celery chopped
1 / 2 onion chopped
oregano
4 – 5 leafs of sage
3 – 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
300 – 350 m.l of Red Wine
salt

Procedure:

Place the meat “Cappello del prete” in a large pan with the chopped carrot, celery, onion, oregano and sage, pour on them the red wine and let them soak over night. The following morning remove all the ingredients from the pan and place them in a bowl, in the same pan preheat the extra virgin olive oil place in it the veal meat and let it brown. Then add the wine with the chopped vegetables, sprinkle with salt and let cook for about 2 hours slowly and on a low flame. During the cooking control that the wine doesn’t reduce too much and if necessary add some water in order to obtain at the end of the cooking a sauce. When the meat is ready cut it in slices, then place the sauce with the vegetables in a mixer and mix them in order to obtain a sort of cream. Now prepare the dish, place on it two or three slices of meat and pour on them the cream and some leafs of sage. The brasato can be served alone. or with some polenta, with it the dish becomes complete and delicious. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

LEAVE heirloom tomatoes to the organic farmers and pork belly to the chefs. In the chemistry department at Rutgers University and other laboratories like it, the real action is in less trendy ingredients like oregano, crab shells and milk.

In a handful of food science labs around the country, people who talk about food in terms of microbes and polymers have been turning the natural pathogen fighters found in everyday food into edible films and powders.

If their work pans out, thin films woven with a thyme derivative that can kill E. coli could line bags of fresh spinach. The same material in powder form might be sprinkled on packages of chicken to stop salmonella.

Strawberries could be dipped in a soup made from egg proteins and shrimp shells. The resulting film — invisible, edible and, ideally, flavorless — would fight mold, kill pathogens and keep the fruit ripe longer.

For average eaters who are still scratching their heads over trans fat, food coated with invisible films that lure bad microorganisms to their death might as well be nuclear fusion. But food scientists believe the potential for using these everyday ingredients to make a safer food supply is huge.

“These natural films are really a very hot topic these days,” said Michael Chikindas, a food scientist working with the team at Rutgers. “The range of applications is endless, from very delicate foods to Army rations and space missions.”

Read Full Article..

Love apples. Pomi d’oro. These are other names for one of our favorite vegetables. Or should it be favorite fruits? (More about this later.) In either case, our subject is the tomato.

Sidney Carlisle’s article Tomatoes: Making the Most of the Summer Crop will fill you in on the basics. I’ll provide some tomato history, trivia, and recipes.

Tomato History
Most culinary historians believe that tomatoes are native to the Andes region of Peru and Northern Chile. In time, the plant migrated to Central America and on to Mexico. The word tomato is thought to have come from the Aztec word xitomatl, meaning large tomato.

Europe discovered tomatoes courtesy of Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés, who conquered Mexico in 1519. Tomatoes then spread into Spain, Italy, the Philippines and Asia. The road to Britain and North America, however, would prove a bit bumpy.

 read more …