Happy World Cocktail Day

Yes, folks, raise a glass - today is World Cocktail Day, the culmination, as it were, of World Cocktail Week.

It's a bit early for me to be having that cocktail, and I prefer to wait for Significant Eater since I don't really like to drink alone - well, unless I have to.

So, what'll it be? An Aviation perhaps, with that great funky sweet and sour hit of Maraschino and lemon? Maybe a nice, tart Daiquiri or Margarita, all limey and tropical? How about the bitter side and my favorite, Campari. A good Negroni is one of the world's great cocktails, with lots of permutations depending on what gin and/or vermouth you're using. I like Beefeater or Plymouth for my gin, and Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth for my, well, sweet vermouth.

My recipe for a good Negroni goes something like this. Take a double old-fashioned glass and fill it with ice. Add equal parts of gin, sweet vermouth, Campari. Perhaps a few drops of orange bitters. Garnish with a good hunk of orange peel. If you want to fancy it up, stir it up in a mixing glass with lots of cracked ice and strain into chilled cocktail glasses - go crazy and ignite the orange peel in front of everyone - if you can...

I digress. If you want something with brown spirits, how about a Manhattan? I've talked about those before. Or a Mint Julep? If I had mint growing in my backyard, I'd be thinking about that. Sazeracs are good, aren't they? The list goes on and on.

But, after giving it some thought, I think SE and I will be raising our glasses with that classic of classics, the Martini. But taking the Martini one step further - into a drink called the Fitty-Fitty, which we first sampled at NYC's Pegu Club. It's just like it sounds; 50 - 50 or half gin, half dry vermouth. Tanqueray, Plymouth or Beefeater all work. Please have something at least as good as Noilly Prat for your dry vermouth (it's makes up half your drink), and if it's more than a month or two old, or out of the refrigerator for a while, throw it out because it will just ruin your drink. Buy some Dolin or Vya and see what they do for a cocktail. A dash or two of orange bitters (I actually like 3 or 4) makes it sing. Stir, stir, stir some more over lots of cracked ice and then strain into an icy cocktail glass. Lemon twist is the garnish for the 50-50, but a Martini can take an olive instead, if you like.

Happy World Cocktail Day!

Spring Greens...and Purples...and Reds...and

Just a day or two ago, the Union Square green market was ablaze - not only with green, but with flowers like the lilacs and the purple tipped asparagus above, as well as any number of young, tender spring vegetables that are always an inspiration to me as a cook. Let's take another look at that asparagus...and radishes...and ramps...

And here's what I like to do with them. First of all, as little as possible - remember, these are delicate young vegetables, and they don't need a whole heck of a lot to make them delicious. One of my inspirations for preparing vegetables has been the restaurants Lupa and Otto. At each of these wonderful places, there are usually any number of vegetable antipasti, some prepared just like I've done the asparagus and radishes. First off, notice I've trimmed the asparagus (to about a 6" length) and peeled the bottom 2". Cooking school will do that to you. Then, slice the vegetables very thinly (if you slice the asparagus on an acute diagonal, it will look very cool). Next, toss the vegetables with a bit of kosher salt about an hour before they'll be served - this serves to draw out some of the water and partially "cooks" the vegetable as well.

When ready to serve, blot the vegetable dry - you'll be surprised at how much water has leeched out, and that water tastes like, well, salt water. Then, give them a toss with some good extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper - taste and make sure they're good. Sometimes, I'll top the salads with a bit of shaved pecorino or shaved parmesan; others just a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt for contrast. Maybe a bit of parsley...you be the judge. This is what I ended up with the other day...crudi of asparagus and radishes.

For the ramps, I decided to do a little riff on a favorite pasta, spaghetti aglio e olio e peperoncino, or spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and hot chili pepper, substituting the ramps for the garlic. So, once the heavily salted water is rolling and you've added the pasta, saute the thinly sliced ramps in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, adding a 1/2 teaspoon of chili pepper flakes or to taste.

When the pasta is almost al dente, toss it in the pan with the ramps and oil - save a good cup of the pasta cooking water, though. I never drain pasta by dumping it into a colander; instead, I remove long pasta with tongs directly into the saucepan and if I'm cooking penne or some similar shape, I remove the pasta with a Chinese bamboo strainer right into the pan.

Toss it up really well and when it's just about cooked perfectly, turn off the heat and add a nice handful of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (and I hope you're not using that stuff in a can, or your pasta can never rise above the level of meh) along with a couple of tablespoons of minced parsley. If it's too "tight," add some of the pasta water. You don't really want it saucy, just dressed. Remember, the dish is about the pasta, everything else is a condiment. And here's what we ended up with...a delicious green market dinner.

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Over the past year or so, Significant Eater has developed a significant aversion to bananas. Yes, bananas; that wondrous fruit readily available the year round, at a reasonable price. No matter where you are, I'm sure bananas are around...they're grown in over 100 countries, travel well, and people just like 'em. Well, most people.

Back when Significant Eater trained for and ran and completed the 2004 NYC marathon, she devoured bananas, and many runners and other endurance athletes find bananas a quick, easily digestible source of energy. There have been studies about that...and if I felt like it, I'd google it and post a link, but...

Anyway, Significant Eater is once again an athlete-in-training. Yes, that's right, she's registered for and planning to run the 2009 NYC Marathon, and I am once again her designated nutrition coach. But if you think she's back into eating bananas, you'd be wrong. So what's a coach to do?

Well, for one, I am (as might have been pointed out before) a professionally schooled cook. And in order to complete my schooling, I did have to take an intensive program in Pastry and Baking. My teacher for those classes was the one and only Nick Malgieri - the head of the Pastry & Baking program at the Institute of Culinary Education, formerly Peter Kump's Cooking School.
Nick is a great teacher, a wonderful baker and just an all-around good guy (though he did knock my grade down a bit for having too much buttercream in between the layers of a chocolate cake I baked for an exam). That didn't matter a bit; one of the go-to books in my baking arsenal has always been...

Now, getting back to bananas, and getting Significant Eater to eat them, that's the goal. And really, what's a better way to start than with what is in my mind a classic; the hippie-ish 60's and 70's delicacy - banana bread? There must be hundreds of recipes for banana bread. With nuts or without? Perhaps raisins or some other dried fruit? What about chocolate chips or something decadent like that?

Well, it just so happens that Nick's book has one of the simplest, no-brainer recipes for banana bread that I've tried (confession - I've been making banana bread since way before SE's aversion to the fruit appeared). Works every time - it's tried and true. But, and here's where the problem started...I decided to go "off-the-menu" as they say, and dragged this out instead...

Don't get me wrong - this is a great book too. It's just that the banana bread that I baked from it was a bit of a disaster...I'm sure it was partly my fault, but suffice to say that I'll be returning to Nick's guidance when I have some more ripe bananas in the house.

Anyway, to start, you should gather all the ingredients together - that way, you'll know BEFORE you start that you can complete the recipe - which you've of course read through and through. Haven't you?

Baking, as stated many times before, is a bit more of a science than "cooking." Not getting into that debate right now, but in general it's good to follow a recipe and measure stuff when baking - especially for novices and semi-novices like me. In the picture above, you can see some whole-wheat flour, which isn't called for in the recipe - but I like to sub about 1/2 cup of the whole wheat flour in for the plain white flour (makes me feel virtuous); that's about as much riffing as I do. It's also good to know if your oven is properly calibrated - invest $10 in an oven thermometer to find out - if it's off, you can adjust accordingly.

Banana bread is from the "quick bread" family of baking. In general, that means the wet ingredients are mixed together, flour and nuts/dried fruit/chocalate/etc. are added and stirred just to combine thoroughly, the batter is dumped into a pan (or muffin cups) and the baking is commenced. Easy. The rise comes from eggs, baking powder and/or baking soda and the heat of the oven - no yeast.

And even though the bread I baked the other day was a semi-disaster (okay, it got stuck to the pan and practically fell apart when I went to put it on a cooling rack), it was still quite serviceable - and delicious...

Trust me - with a little practice, you'll be turning out banana breads that can even be served for dessert- topped with ice cream, what could be bad? I like it toasted and topped with peanut butter for breakfast, and Significant Eater doesn't even know how many bananas she's eaten!

(ADAPTED FROM) NICK MALGIERI'S BANANA BREAD

1 cup raisins
1 1/4 c (6 1/4 oz.) all-purpose flour
1/2 c (2 1/2 oz.) whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 T butter, softened
2/3 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c (8 oz.) mashed ripe bananas

Preheat your oven to 375. Butter and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 loaf pan.

Toss raisins with a tablespoon of the flour...this keeps them from settling to the bottom of the batter.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time till well combined. Scrape the bowl a few times when mixing. Add the bananas and vanilla - mix more. Scrape again.

Fold in flour mixture, then raisins. Combine thoroughly but don't overmix.

Pour and scrape the batter into the pan. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes, till done - check doneness with a skewer or thin knife by inserting into bread - it should come out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a rack and let cool - for at least 2 hours works.

Enjoy.