I attended Farm Camp this past weekend, an experience developed for food industry professionals by the folks behind Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY.  My time there was profoundly life-changing, and is sure to be the subject of many a post here but, for starters, I wanted to share some egg freshness tips from Jen Small, one of the co-founders and farmers of Flying Pigs, that certainly came as news to me.  For example, I had no idea just how long a good quality egg would last under refrigeration (two months or so), or that the albumen (the white of the egg) is slightly cloudy for the first few hours after the egg is laid, and then eventually clears – a subject with which one is only concerned when making one’s breakfast out of very freshly laid eggs, as we had the great fortune of doing yesterday morning.  The eggs from Flying Pigs are always top notch thanks to the well-treated birds that are granted generous access to good quality feed and have plenty of room to roam around the rolling hills of Shushan to feast on bugs.  But, how do we always know for sure if our eggs are fresh?  There are a few checkpoints, according to Jen.  First and foremost, you can drop your eggs into a deep container of cold water – the very freshest ones will sink to the bottom and lay on their side.  But just because they float doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad.  Older eggs will rise to the top because the air cell within them gets larger with age.  These are the eggs Jen chooses to hard boil, as the larger air space makes them easier to peel. 

Cracking the egg open will reveal much more about its freshness.  You’ll know right away by the smell (foul) if it’s turned.  Once out of the shell, the yolk of the raw egg should sit up straight in the whites.  The older the egg, the flatter and softer the yolk will be.  The thicker the whites, the better.  If the chalaza (stringy white bits on either side of the yolk that anchor it to the center of the egg) are in tact, you know your egg is very fresh as the chalaza will deteriorate with age.

Helpful tips, but I recommend always buying your eggs from Flying Pigs (available Fridays and Saturdays at the Union Square Greenmarket) or other local farms doing things the right way, as they’ll be gobbled up long before they have any chance of losing their freshness.  

To be filed under ‘Things I had to Learn the Hard Way’: Multiple Brooklyn Brewery Coffee Stouts + many many pours of saké + a Kolsch nightcap = a great time…followed by queasiness, a pretty hardcore headache, and a general sense of malaise.  The fact that all of this went down on a Wednesday night and Thursday morning, respectively, meant that I had one rough day of work ahead of me.  After my go-to hangover cure (toasted jalapeno bagel with veggie cream cheese and a gallon of blue Gatorade) failed to produce any serious relief, I began to feel a bit desperate.  That is until I remembered that just the day before, like mysterious gift from the party gods, a sample of this had arrived in the mail.  Hangover Buster.  I’m aware that the photo is awful and blurry, but that’s quite reflective of my state of mind when I took it.

I’ll admit it; I was sketched out by this product.  More specifically, I was sketched out by this statement:

I’m still unclear as to why they’re quite so serious about the water being room temperature.   But, I was in dire straits.  What choice did I have?  So I mixed it up in my empty Gatorade bottle (because I’m a classy lady) and hoped for the best.

I kid you not, mere moments later I was already starting to feel better.  My headache was gone, I could think clearly once again, and the slightest physical exertion (sitting upright) no longer made me feel like death would be sweet relief.  Granted all of that was replaced by a racing heart, a freakish level of productivity, and the sudden urge to run around the block for an hour or two.  Turns out there’s a hefty dose of vitamins in each serving, plus an insane amount of caffeine.  And willow bark which, according to Wikipedia, is traditionally used as a remedy for aches and fever.  Who knew?

Final verdict: Astor Center does not recommend making a habit of ingesting things that randomly arrive in the mail.  I can, however, confidently admit that not feeling like death for an entire day is absolutely worth a heart palpitation or two.

Ever had buttermilk straight before?  I hadn't either.  Why?  Because that sounds pretty gross.

But when the lovely Cruze Family, the folks behind Cruze Farms Buttermilk, parked their truck on Lafayette St. to begin to unload for day 1 of the New York Food Film Festival (in which their Film 'Buttermilk, It Can Help' was featured), within seconds everyone in sight was handed and sweaty bottle and instructed to taste. 

Shockingly, it's pretty good!  The buttermilk is pleasantly rich and tangy, but has a texture I found challenging at first.  That is until I found out the 'chunkiness' is the result of pure flecks of butter that don't get strained out of the mix - suddenly the texture was a-ok with me.  Of course I can think of ten thousand things I'd like to bake with it, but the straight buttermilk would also be a lovely stand in for my morning yogurt, could be blended into a mean smoothie, or poured on cereal for a more savory experience (something I, as a girl who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, welcomes wholeheartedly).  Earl Cruze crumbles cornbread into it for a snack, which is just so charmingly southern I can hardly handle it.  And, according to Cheri Cruze, buttermilk also happens to be a secret cure for a hangover, something a girl in my chosen field of employment can also get behind.

But, we can only drink so much straight buttermilk, and so I decided to make a serious breakfast for everyone this morning, using the Cruze's wares to whip up some pancakes.

Buttermilk Pancakes 

Serves 3 to 4 (about 8 3-inch pancakes).  

Ingredients     

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

½ teaspoon table salt 

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk (the highest quality you can find)

1 large egg, separated 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

Vegetable oil, for brushing griddle

 Instructions

1. Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Pour buttermilk into 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Whisk in egg white; mix yolk with melted butter, then stir into milk mixture. Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients all at once; whisk until just mixed.
2. Meanwhile, heat griddle or large skillet over strong medium-high heat. Brush griddle generously with oil. When water splashed on surface confidently sizzles, pour batter, about 1/4 cup at a time, onto griddle, making sure not to overcrowd. When pancake bottoms are brown and top surface starts to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes, flip cakes and cook until remaining side has browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Re-oil the skillet and repeat for the next batch of pancakes.

I’ll give it to you straight – I’m in love with Movia’s wines.  I love the radical thinking, the creativity, and the fact that winemaker Ales Kristancic is creating some of the most bizarre and beautiful wines on the planet out of sheer love for those wines, without so much as a nod in the direction of traditional rules of vinification.  Here Pinot Noir can be blended with Cabernet and Merlot; and why not?  Ribolla Gialla can be made into breathtakingly odd, golden, even cider-like wines without the least bit of intervention from human hands after harvest, and can have the potential to age for decades.  Puro, Movia’s spakler, can sit on it’s lees until it’s ready to be consumed, at which time the purchaser may embark upon a 5-part ‘Optional Opening Procedure’ that, when followed, includes manually disgorging under water.  I love the spirit of experimentation and whimsy that you can taste in the finish product.

 But what I’m loving most these days is their newest offering, Quattro Mani, which retails for $11.99 at Astor Wines.  

Quattro Mani (‘four hands’) is the brainchild of Italian wine importer Paolo Domeneghetti.  For this particular project, Paolo asked four well-known winemakers from different parts of Italy each to create a wine based around an indigenous grape that is at once affordable and reflective of the terroir of the specific region from which it came.  Movia produced a wine of true personality from the Tocai grape, full of fresh, summery notes of basil, spearmint, and fennel, coupled with an unexpectedly rich texture and boatloads of minerality.  

The first time I tried the Quattro Mani Tocai it was without food after a long day at work, which did this little weirdo no justice at all.  The herbaceousness was too overwhelming, the texture too heavy.  A straightforward, crisp and refreshing white it is not.  Movia’s Tocai is a wine that truly shines with food, as I realized last night, when I tried it with Brad Farmerie’s brilliant steamed snapper with prawn dumplings, bok choy, and kaffir lime-heavy sesame broth at Double Crown.  The floral nature of the kaffir lime managed to both compliment and lessen the intensity of the herbal notes in the wine, allowing the richness of the fruit to come forward.  Revolutionary thinking meets practical pairing, at its best.

It’s official: our collective sense of humor here at Astor Center HQ is on par with that of your average fourth grader.  While their goat’s milk yogurt is the finest around, the lovely ladies and gentleman in charge of packaging at Liberté might want to reconsider this particular image choice:

which has been the source of more than a few maniacal fits of laughter around here today.  While there’s actually no goat-on-goat funny business going on, a quick look certainly would suggest otherwise.  Thanks, Liberté, you made our day.

This past Wednesday was our fifth session of The Gastronomica Forum, centered around everyone’s favorite Marshmallow Crème: Fluff!  Not only did we have a rousing discussion of fluff history, lore, and anti vs. pro fluff legislation, but we enjoyed many a fluff-themed snack and, best of all, a fluff cocktail!  I was happily assigned the vital task of developing the recipe for said cocktail, which turned out to be no simple matter.  I’ve mixed up a few drinks in my day, but can’t say that I’ve ever considered how one might incorporate marshmallow (a straight up mysteriously textured solid) into booze. 

I contemplated a few approaches.  A classic Sidecar, the coupe rimmed with fluff instead of sugar?  An artistic drizzle of fluff in the glass of a chocolate martini?   A fluff ‘cloud’ floating atop a gin rickey?  Those all seemed tough to execute.  Fluff, as we all well know, is mostly sticky and inflexible, and doesn’t take well to drizzling.  Even when microwaved, as I discovered whilst experimenting, it only expands into a bizarre mushroom cloud over the top of the jar, but doesn’t really melt down enough to be easy to work with.  

Finally I settled on using the fluff mostly for body, texture (much the way mixologists in the know use egg whites) and subtle sweetness by blending it up with some Marachino Liqueur, which I then mixed into a twist on the classic gin-based drink, the Aviation.  The result was somewhat reminiscent of Sweet Tarts, but was also floral, interesting, and downright delicious (although, after a few minutes of resting in the glass the fluff did sort of separate in a manner that was fairly disturbing.  Lucky for me they seemed to be consumed before anyone could notice this tiny detail!).  

I know you’re all dying to serve this at your next bbq, so here’s the recipe:

Thin fluff down with Maraschino (I used the Luxardo brand) until it’s the consistency of a very thick simple syrup by whisking the two together.  It will take some patience for the fluff to fully dissolve.

2 oz Gin (I used Plymouth)

½ oz Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Fluff/Maraschino Syrup

¼ oz Creme de Violette

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake vigorously for 30 seconds and pour into a chilled coupe or martini glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist, or a dollop of Fluff, if you can handle it.  Enjoy.