FOOD TRIVIA: Some Facts About Pizza

1) The word "pizza" comes from the Latin root word, "picea", which means, "blackening of crust by fire".


2) The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy in 1738.




 3) The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Genaro Lombardi in 1895 in the borough of Manhattan's Little Italy section of New York. It is still operating at 32 Spring Street.




4) Pizzerias represent 17% of all US restaurants.




5) Over 5 billion pizzas are sold world-wide each year.

COOKING TIP: Making Better Tea

DON'T squeeze tea bags when you remove them from your cup or you will squeeze tannins into your tea making it bitter. Use filtered water to avoid minerals in tap water which can make tea cloudy or bitter. To prevent food odors from being absorbed, COVER  cooled  tea being used for iced tea when storing it in the refrigerator . Freeze some tea into ice cubes and use as ice so your tea will not become diluted from using regular water ice cubes.

THINGS I LIKE: Lahmacun: Turkish Pizza

When I was a young man working near Greenwich village in New York, I would walk around the neighborhood at lunchtime looking for something different to eat. Once, I don't remember where or what was it's name, I came across a  food shop selling  "Lahmacun" that was described as Turkish pizza. I had never heard of this before. It was a flatbread covered with ground lamb with some chopped onion, tomatoes and Eastern spices, that was baked in a hot oven and served. It was delicious!! On researching it, I found that the name comes from the Arabic word,  "lahm ala adschiin" meaning, "dough with meat" and  that it is  found in Armenia and several countries of the Middle East, each with their own version. I wanted to make it at home but didn't want to bother having to make the flatbread dough. When I found a Lahmacun recipe that I liked, I made the Turkish pizza, substituting  a flour tortilla for the traditional flatbread. While it was not traditional, it worked. Now you can buy flatbread in most supermarkets so if you wish a more traditional Lahmacun, feel free. I still prefer the simplicity and ease of tortillas which, always, are in my refrigerator. The recipe from "allrecipes.com" with my "tweaking" follows:

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. lean, ground lamb
4 Roma tomatoes, halved
4 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 C fresh parsley
2 Tbsp fresh mint
1/2 Tbsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp ground Coriander
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
6 Tbsp tomato paste concentrate*
TT  salt, freshly ground black pepper and Cayenne pepper

Flour tortillas**





PROCEDURE
Heat oven to 500 F.


 Preheat a  skillet over medium - high heat.



Put olive oil, onion, garlic, parsley, mint and spices into a food processor and pulse until the finely chopped. Remove and set aside. Add the Roma tomatoes to the processor and process  until a thick puree is formed.



Put lamb into preheated skillet, reduce heat to medium, and add puree and tomato paste concentrate. Mix well and cook until lamb is cooked through, 10 - 15 min. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne and allow to cool to room temperature.


Add vegetable/spice mixture and mix, thoroughly. (The filling, at this point, can be cooled further and then refrigerated for use at a later time.)



Spread filling onto tortillas up to the edges. Place on baking sheet and bake until done; 8 -10 minutes.





Cut into wedges and ENJOY!







* I use Amore brand concentrated tomato paste. It is available in most supermarkets.

** The number of pizzas this recipe will make will depend on the size of the flour tortilla you are using.

FOOD HISTORY: Fondue

Fondue, derived from the French word,"fondre", meaning "to melt', is a warm cheese dish which originated in the Neuchatel Canton of Switzerland. Traditionally, it consists of at least, two cheeses, melted with white wine and flour to stabilize the cheese in the wine. It is served , communally,  in a pot called a "caquelon" and is eaten with long forks used to spear a piece of bread to dip into the melted cheese. Before refrigeration, cheese and bread were made in the summer and fall and were expected to last throughout the winter. Obviously, the bread and cheese became hard before they were totally eaten. The Swiss, however, found that the hard cheese could be melted and become edible when heated with wine and stale, dried out bread became soft and pliable when dipped into the melted cheese. What was once developed as a necessary means to eat otherwise inedible cheese and bread, developed into a social custom where the Swiss could enjoy a communal meal with family or friends around a heated pot of melted cheese and bread. From Switzerland, the idea of dipping bread into melted cheese spread to other countries. While the original Swiss fondue consists of two cheeses, Gruyere and Emmentaler (sometimes kirsch, a clear cherry flavored brandy and garlic are added) each canton has their own style of fondue. Italians have their Fonduta, made from Fontina cheese and egg yolks while the Dutch eat Kaas Doop, a fondue style dish using Gouda cheese, milk, brandy and nutmeg and use brown bread for dipping. Other kinds of fondue have evolved, not using cheeses but  hot oil into which various tidbits are dipped to either cook or flavor. Bagna Cauda ( from the Italian, bagno caldo - meaning "hot bath",) a specialty of the Piedmont region of Italy, is made using butter, olive oil, garlic and anchovies and is used as a dip for various fresh vegetables. Fondue Bourguignon, a fondue method of cooking meats in hot oil  was introduced by Konrad Egli, Chef at the New York Swiss Chalet restaurant in 1964. Also, in the 1960's,  Egli, working with a Swiss chocolate company wanting to find a way of introducing its new chocolate and nougat bar named Toblerone  in the US, hit upon a new kind of fondue - a sweet one - using only cream, Toblerone and Kirsch brandy into which pieces of  fruit or cake could be dipped. Now there are all kinds  of fondues to choose from and one to please everybody's  taste.

FOOD TRIVIA: Cocao

Kakaw was the primary word used for cacao beans in Mesoamerica from which the word cacao comes. Cocoa is a misspelling of cacao which appeared in a ship's manifest in the 18th century. This led to the replacement of the original word which is continued to be used in the U.S. and the United Kingdom today.

THINGS I LIKE: Loukoumades

I have liked sweetened fried dough treats all my life. I ate taiglach, a traditional Jewish Chanukah celebration fried dough treat coated in honey, made by my maternal Grandma Amper when I was a child. In my my teen years (and many thereafter) I started eating Italian powdered sugar covered  zeppole at New York's Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy and many other Italian festivals. I had honey drizzled sopapillas and cinnamon /sugar coated churros at Mexican fiestas and enjoyed powdered sugar coated funnel cakes in the Pennsylvania Dutch country and at the Clermont County fair in Ohio. I loved each of them. Two years ago, my Chiropractor and good friend Kosta Linardakis, who is Greek/American and  is a member of the Board of Directors of his Greek Orthodox Church, Saint George's, invited me to attend his church's Panygyri. A Panygyri is a festival  that Greek churches use as fund raising events where all things Greek  are celebrated - culture, products, song  dance, and to me, most enjoyable of all, the  food where the best dishes best are prepared by the mothers and, especially, the yia yia,s (grandmothers) of the church members. It was there, I had my first taste of loukoumades;  light, airy fried dough-balls  that were drizzled with a sugar water/ honey syrup.They were so wonderful that, as soon as I had finished the first six that came with each purchase, I ordered another and ate them on the spot. Went the next year and did the same thing .They are WONDERFUL and have become my favorite fried dough treat. On New Year's Day, 2015 Kosta appeared at our door offering us a bowl of sweet syrup covered loukoumades, a gift from from him, his wife Maria and  his mother - in - law Faye, who had made them. We were  told us that it is a Greek tradition that you give gifts of Loukoumades to your neighbors on  New Year's day to wish them a "sweet year". In return, they give you a glass of water that you take home, sprinkle it in the sign of the cross and around your  house to bless it for the coming year. WHAT A MARVELOUS WAY TO START A NEW YEAR! A Faye approved recipe for loukoumades follows:




INGREDIENTS
2 lbs flour
1 C lukewarm water
2 C lukewarm milk
0.5 oz. dry yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp salt


vegetable oil for frying


SYRUP
1/2 C honey
cinnamon powder
chopped walnuts or toasted sesame seeds




PREPARATION
Mix water and yeast, stir with a fork and wait 5 minutes until yeast dissolves. Add the3 rest of thye ingredients for the dough and whisk at high speed, until the mixture becomes a smooth batter - about 2 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest in a warm place for, at last, six hours. pour enough oil into a medium size pan to deep fry the Loukoumades. Heat oil until it begins to shimmer. test to see if the oil is hot enough by dropping a bit of them dough into the oil. If it sizzles, the oil is ready.Dip a spoon into water and drop spoonsful of the dough into the oil until the surface of the pan is comfortably filled but the dough is still separated. dip the spoon into water each time you pick up some dough to cook so that its doesn't stick to the spoon. While the Loukoumades are frying, use a slotted spoon, to move them around inn the oil so that all sides are cooked to a golden brown. when browned, remove to paper towels to drained and  prepare the next batch. When they are all done, drizzle with the heated honey and sprinkle cinnamon and the chopped nuts or toasted sesame seeds, if using them.

COOKING TIP: Keeping Fried Shrimp Straight

When shrimp are fried, they tend to curl up. To avoid this and to keep them straight when frying, make two 1/4 inch deep incisions on the underside of the shrimp, about two inches apart.