Summers Syrupy Sweet Drops

With the dog days of summer now upon us, the sun shines late in the day and leaves many of us craving sweet refreshment. If you’re like me, nothing beats an ice cold beverage to cool off with in the late afternoon. A little sugar just seems to sweeten the rest of the day. Let’s take a look at the sugars used to sweeten summertime drinks.

My personal favorite is natural cane sugar. Every morning, I make a large café au lait and add more packets of Sugar In The Raw than I care to share. Processed from a large, quickly growing cane that grows close to the equator, the cane is cut, pressed of its syrupy juices and cooked until crystals begin to form. The brown color of cane sugar comes naturally from the cane and when separated from the sugar in the refining process it’s called molasses.

Be careful of the imitators that will take refined beet sugar and spray it with molasses to create a deceptive look alike. Yes, I said beet sugar. Unbeknownst to many, half of the “sugar” consumed in the United States is made from sugar beets. Sugar cane here in the U.S. is mainly grown in more tropical environments throughout the southern states. Refineries are required to label their sugar with beet or cane. Usually the package will say “pure cane sugar,” so if not specified, it’s probably made from refined beets.

Born and raised in Decatur, Illinois, the home of the major manufacturer of corn byproducts, I grew up not knowing that most of my food and beverages were sweetened with corn syrup. This topic alone has become a forefront issue in today’s health. A wealth of information can be found both for and against our country’s connection to sweets. Yet still, one of my favorite treats when I go shopping at La Huerta Supermarket for authentic ingredients is a small bottle of Coca Cola imported from Mexico. It’s sweetened with natural cane sugar and is a welcomed splash of refreshment.

When I’m cooking in the kitchen on a hot summer day, I also love to make a bucket of watermelon fresca for the crew and I. First, I make a heavy syrup from sugar and water and as I pull it from the stove, I throw in some zest of lime before allowing to cool. I juice a watermelon and a few limes, pour them over ice and add the lime syrup to sweeten. I usually make this in one of our house made ice cream tubs and love to shake it vigorously before serving.

However sweet you like your day or your beverages, be sure to take the time to enjoy the refreshment. It’s the sweetest of moments in the day that make it worth getting up tomorrow.

Cheese Toastie vs Grilled Cheese

Late one night while checking my facebook account I stumbled across a fan page for “cheese toasties” and felt a need to become a fan. I posed the age old debate the next day on Facebook and Twitter: cheese toastie vs grilled cheese, is there a difference? My blackberry rattled throughout the day in the kitchen with responses, some with strong conviction to the beloved cheese toastie those of us from my hometown of Decatur IL grew up with. What is this elusive toastie filled with cheese and why does it hold such a connection both with our youth and the town we called home? Is it an actual culinary term or is it just a form of solidarity for Decaturites who also boast of being the home of ADM, Staley (and their unique smells), the Chicago bears and even the DQ Blizzard capital of the world for a bit in during the 80’s?

While studying the culinary arts for many years, never did I find the term cheese toastie in the text of Gastronomique, Le Repertoire de la Cuisine, On Cooking or even James Beard’s many books. I have seen many menus in my career and only a few have listed a cheese toastie outside of Decatur rather grilled cheese seems ubiquitous on kid’s menus around the world.  As a Chef Instructor at the Le Cordon Bleu (CCA) in San Francisco my students would look at me cross eyed when I started lecturing on the finer points of the proper techniques and vernacular. I continue to take great pride when I can serve cheese toasties in fine dining restaurants and love spreading the word of velvety cheese encased in crispy golden brown, squishy bread goodness.

To me there is a stark difference between the “grilled cheese” and the “toastie.” Grilled cheese is usually made in a restaurant that has a high heat flat top grill. Two pieces of bread, usually utilized somewhere else in the menu, are sandwiched between the most kid friendly cheese in house (usually American). A puddle of a butter flavored, temperature stabilized oil is poured onto the griddle and the sandwich placed on top, cooked until brown and flipped into another puddle then smooshed down with a heavy spatula. The result is a semi soft around the edges sandwich with melted cheese in the middle and tasting like the griddle it cooked on. Not something to write home about.

The ethereal cheese toastie in my eyes begins with thinly sliced squishy white bread. Room temperature whole butter is spread in a delicate layer carefully covering every square inch of both sides of the bread before going over the heat. As for the cheese, while American is traditional and my personal favorite, I do love sharp cheddar, chihuahua or something really creamy and gooey like Rouge et Noir’s brie or Yellowbuck  Camembert on the occasion. One of my favorite dishes here at Niche is a smoked tomato - basil bisque with chive studded goat cheese toasties slathered with local artisan butter. A non-stick pan over medium heat sets the stage for gently placing the buttered bread down and allowing it to slowly crisp and become golden brown on the first side without pressing it down. Gently flip it over and season the top with salt and allow the other side to crisp. Medium heat will allow the cheese to melt slowly and bind both sides of the bread. From the pan, place the toastie on a cutting board and with a semi dull knife cut it in half. The semi dull knife will not only cut the bread but will pinch it, keeping the cheese where its supposed to be.

Maybe the cheese “toastie” is a term unique to Decatur like the way we pronounce  our main drag El Dorado or maybe Decatur is the genesis of a movement of warm cheese sandwichs that will spread through borders and time. Whatever label you want to put on it, the flavors and textures of 3 simple ingredients stirs warm memories from our past. Enjoy your “toastie”

Rooting around with wild boars continues with their back door arrival

…Just days earlier, the boar that arrived at Niche were foraging wild in the hill country near Ingram, Texas. Without time on the feed lot, their diet mainly consists of nuts, berries, grasses and tubers as they roam in groups called sounders. Always on the move, their meat is lean and leads to dark meat throughout most of the cuts. The population of wild boar in Texas hovers around 2 million and is regularly thinned out to control populations by licensed trappers. North of San Antonio in the central part of the state, Broken Arrow Ranch prides itself in high quality meats handled and butchered by professionals. A bit to my dismay, due to strict state regulations, I wasn’t allowed many of the parts of the animal that are enjoyed as delicacies by many.

When the usual delivery truck arrived last Friday morning, I carefully lifted the wild boar out of their shipper and watched my regular delivery guys’ eyebrows raise either in sheer curiosity or utter shock. No matter how much research or experience comes flushing back, chefs tend to be most creative when they are able to look at and feel a product much like any other artist and their mediums. Its light rose-colored meat lightly laced in cotton-white fat along with other more graphic in nature yet bright colors showing its freshness, spurned ideas of how we would carefully prepare it. Within moments, ideas of flavors and textures began to run rampant and riddle my brain, but more of that to come later. . .