By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 18th, 2009
Stock (makes approx 8 cups):
1 good glug extra virgin olive oil
2 medium Spanish/Yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, smashed
A few springs of fresh Thyme
1 cup white wine
2 quarts Water
1 Lemon, halved
A few cloves
shells/heads from 1 lb of Maine shrimp, preferably raw
Salt and pepper
N.B. You can throw all sorts of things in the stock. The original recipe called for celery and fennel, nether of which I really care for, so I left them out and milled tomatoes which didn’t really fit the flavor I was going for (and I don’t have a food mill nor access to really nice, fresh tomatoes in January) so I left them out too. I didn’t hew too closely to any one recipe and adapted a few different ones to suit my taste. Also, the amount of stock you can make will depend on the amount of water and shells you use. The amount I gave you should make enough for two.
Heat a large pot (4+ quarts, preferable enamel) over medium-high heat and add oil. When the oil gets hot, add onions and sweat them for a minute or two. They don’t need to be cooked/translucent. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another minute or so. Add the wine and simmer for another minute and then add the water. Squeeze the juice from the lemon in the water and then drop the lemon halves in. Toss in the cloves and shrimp shells and heads, season with a very little kosher salt and fresh black pepper. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer the stock for a good hour, until it’s reduced. Try not to boil it or it will reduce too quickly. If this happens, add more water. The trick is to have 3-4 cups of stock for every 3/4 cup of uncooked risotto (2 main servings) you will end up using.
NB: Don’t be afraid to taste the stock and add ingredients to suit your tastes.
When the stock is done, pass it through a fine sieve or a chinois. If you are going to use it immediately, put it back on the stove at a very low heat. Enough to keep it hot, but not high enough to boil/reduce it any further. If you’re not going to use it right away, let it cool slightly and it can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for an extended period of time.
Risotto recipe after the jump:
Continue reading Recipe: Maine Shrimp Risotto
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 18th, 2009
In keeping with the wintery theme of my last post, I’d like to give you all a few suggestions on how to eat healthily and often, locally during the winter months when, in the vast majority of the country the amount of local produce in supermarkets dwindle (if they ever carried local produce, which most don’t). What many folks don’t know is that winter is not solely the domain of apples, root veggies and frozen peas. Check out these charts for an idea of what kinds of fruits and vegetables are available in which months. In those cases, it’s the San Francisco area but here’s a national guide. Remember that even these are not steadfast rules. Within various communities there are local farms with cold frames and greenhouses that are bringing more and more fresh veggies to farmers’ markets even in the depths of winter!
Now on to seafood. Two of the most delectable sea creatures I can imagine come into season during the fall and winter months: bay scallops and Maine shrimp. In the Northeast, Peconic and Nantucket bay scallop season starts around early November and continues until March. This year’s Peconic haul looks to be the best in years (similar stories are floating south from Mass.) and may even top last year’s haul of 9,942 pounds. If that seems like a small amount to you, it is but consider this: according to Newsday.com the entire statewide haul (which comes exclusively from Long Island waters) was a mere 53 pounds as recently as 1996 while in 1982 it was 500,000 pounds. As a resuly, prices fluxuate greatly. This year the retail price during the first week was about $19/lb where I live in East Hampton and it’s since ballooned to about $25/lb. However, consider that even at 10,000 lbs for the season, that’s only $250,000 retail! The Baymen are getting much less than that.
Continue reading Winter Hints: It’s Not All Frozen Fish sticks and Potatoes
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 17th, 2009
Well, Winter is upon us. The skies darken obscenely early, the ground is cold and hard and we all (at least those of us not in Florida, San Diego and Southern Arizona) succumb to a little bit of the doldrums, aka Seasonal Affective Disorder. Some of us worse than others. I have recently been diagnosed with a rather severe vitamin D deficiency and while researching the treatment (vitamin D supplements, duh!) I discovered that some doctors think regular supplements of D may help this seasonal malady. Since our bodies manufacture the majority of our D through exposure to sunlight, when we’re not exposed to the sun very much, we have much lower D levels and thus, we have symptoms a D deficiency. Rocket science it ain’t! What are they? Well, according to Easy Immune System health, some are: colds and flu, cavities, depression and S.A.D. (a ha!), Osteoporosis, hypertension, asthma, several cancers and MS.
According to the Vitamin and Supplement guide:
Can you get enough vitamin D from sunlight alone to avoid vitamin D deficiency symptoms?
If you live north of 40 degrees north latitude (about the latitude of New York City) or south of 40 degrees south latitude (about the latitude of Wellington, New Zealand), for at least half of the year, you can’t.
In Boston, Massachusetts, for instance, there is insufficient ultraviolet radiation in the sunlight for skin to make adequate amounts of vitamin D from early November to early March. On the South Island of New Zealand, vitamin D deficiency is a real risk from early May to early September. In Calgary, Alberta, residents don’t get enough vitamin D even if they get daily sun exposure from October until nearly April. And in northern Europe, Alaska, and Russia, the problem is even worse.
Go ahead and do a Google search on Vitamin D and you’ll notice a lot of new research that points to D being important on a number of levels and indications that it can help safeguard against many maladies (fatigue, chronic pain, cancer, MS, obesity, stroke, etc.) can be found all over the net.
All that said, I am taking supplements because I went to a doctor and was tested and prescribed 5,000 IU, daily. DO NOT take my word for it, especially if you’re on any medication. However, if you find yourself down in the dumps, getting frequent colds or just want to make sure you’re as healthy as you can be, go to your doctor and get your vitamin D levels checked. I’ve only been on the D for a few days and I’ll let you know how I feel in a couple of weeks!
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 12th, 2009
New Orleans is a singular American city for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its food. The bounty of land and sea present itself in its culinary history and, as with the Lucky Dog carts, literary history, as well. We’ll leave any kind of an in-depth look at New Orleans food until I’ve been back a few more times, but the city is swimming with Creole, Cajun, French and other assorted flavors and if you’ve never been, consider these pictures a very small sample of what’s on offer! You can see more pictures from New Orleans and other cities in our Flickr stream, here.
 Cochon's Fried Alligator (front) and Hoghead cheese.  Where fore art thou, Ignatius J. Reilly? Continue reading Images of New Orleans
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 5th, 2009
My visit to Smitty’s was at the very beginning of my culinary, historical, filmic and sporting visit to the South. As per John T. Edge’s proclamation in his brilliant tome Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Guide to the South, I ventured not West of I-35. Keep it East of I-35 in Texas, says John T. and you’re still in the South. well, for 9 weeks and over 7,000 miles, I kept it South of the Mason Dixon Line and East of I-35 and had some extraordinary food, sobering experiences and really odd encounters.
After South by Southwest, I hopped in my rental and made the 540-odd mile trip East to the Crecent City, The Big Easy, NOLA…N’awlins. I hadn’t been there in about 30 years, so I really had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I was excited to visit what is the only US city with its own fully-developed native cuisine and one that is still trying to recover from one of the worst natural and governmental disasters in American history.
 Looking Northeast up the riverfront streetcar tracks. Toulouse St. station, New Orleans. ©Mark Rabinowitz 2009 Continue reading NOLA: My First Po-Boy
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 4th, 2009
NB: The original version of this post originally appeared on my personal blog, The Rabbi Report and was part of what I have come to call my Great Southern Road Trip. Enjoy! -Mark
If you haven’t already figured it out, a big part of this trip and my life is food. I love to cook for people, introduce them to new things and I love to try new things myself. In fact, I was very close to trying baby eel at Chez Phillippe in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis until I read that they were overfished, often counterfeited and $30 in addition to the already steep prix fixe menu… That said, someday I will be back to that excellent hotel to try those baby eels! But first, meat!
That’s right. On this, my 3rd visit to South by Southwest, I finally made it out to Lockhart, Texas and Smitty’s Market. SXSW Film Conference & Production Manager Jarod Neece, himself a primo food blogger, was kind enough to put together a little outing of filmmakers, press and SXSW staffers on the last Friday of the fest and chuck us into a van for the 40 minute drive to the cradle of Texas Bar-B-Q. You see, Lockhart has not one, not two, not three but 4 “world-class” BBQ joints, or so they claim. I’ve only been to Smitty’s, and about Smitty’s I can swear that if there were a god, she’d eat there. There ain’t, so I guess that makes my analogy useless, but whatever. It’s some fan-fucking-tastic BBQ. Now, Texas is known for beef BBQ. if pork’s your thing, I would suggest you head to Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, etc. I’ll be writing plenty about the pork in those places, but for now, concentrate on the beef. Don’t get me wrong, they have the pork, but in Texas it seems like the swine is a secondary food source much of the time. I beg to differ, but when in Rome….
 Mmmmm, meat by the pound! Continue reading A Road Trip To Lockhart or “Meat or Bust!”
By Mark Rabinowitz, on December 4th, 2009
 Laissez les bon temps roullez! First of all, let me welcome you to our new blog, Eating is Fundamental or EiF, for short. Eugene Hernandez and I met almost 17 years ago at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, setting off a long friendship and a sewing the seeds of what would become indieWIRE.com, the groundbreaking independent film publication. Nine years after indieWIRE and I parted ways, I’m happy to say Eug and I have found another joint passion to indulge: food. Where it comes from, where to eat it and how to cook it. In the coming weeks, months and hopefully years, Eugene and I, along with what we hope will be an ever growing group of writers, chefs, farmers and restauranteurs will endeavor to bring you varying perspectives on the world of food and the food of the world.
Eug will tell (or has told, depending on what order you’re reading these intro posts) you of his particular passions and reasons for starting EiF but for me this is a long time coming. My love for cooking and eating and experiencing food began, as is often the case, at home. My mother was an excellent cook and lover of all sorts of ethnic cuisine while dad was far more of the latter than the former (although he was a master of breakfast). I, however, was a picky fucker. My steak had to be well done because I didn’t like the pink stuff in the middle (but, paradoxically, I had no problem mopping up the juices flowing from their medium rare steak with my dinner rolls). I liked spaghetti but not linguini, liked clams but hated scallops and most eggplant still gives me the willies as do roasted peppers and most offal, but I’m learning to like new things and I hope our blog will help you to expand your palates, as well.
Continue reading Welcome to EiF!
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