Notes from a Food Diva: A Tasty New Year

Hearts of Palm

For eons, I have loved hearts of palm. It came in cans and looked like edible candles. It was the star of a favorite recipe in my Who’s Who Cooks Column that featured Good Housekeeping’s editors.

Hearts of palm were cut in half-inch pieces and tossed with avocado slices and Iceberg lettuce torn into bite size pieces with a classic French dressing. Forever after, I added hearts of palm to salads and sometimes just used the slices “as is” in a vinaigrette.

Now, Hawaii is shipping fresh hearts of palm. But never fear, when they harvest the tender edible point at the growing end of the peach palm, the palm continues to produce edible shoots. We sampled it at the Les Dames conference in Atlanta. It was roasted after being tossed in oil and salt and pepper and it was sensational.

So, keep your eyes peeled for this one or order it online. Meanwhile, go with the canned. For New Year’s Eve, do as a clever Douglaston hostess does. She keeps a can handy for drop-in guests and serves inch pieces on picks to dip in remoulade sauce with the drinks.

Meatballs and More Meatballs

You gotta have meatballs. They took the food world by storm in 2011, but have you served them?

My memories go back to frikadellen, a version with breadcrumbs, chopped onions and parsley. Grandma made them deliciously moist and shaped like a small burger. At one point, it seemed that the only pasta everybody made was spaghetti in a red sauce with meatballs. If you went to a smorgasbord restaurant, there were tiny Swedish meatballs in a creamy white sauce. Later, in the Good Housekeeping test kitchen, I tasted Lion‘s Head, the grapefruit-sized Chinese meatball in a bouillon like broth. It was a revelation.

In 2011, restaurants opened featuring meatballs on the menu and even in their name out front. So, get with it and serve tiny meatballs for hors d'oeuvres or big fellows for the main course. Dust off your recipe for Swedish meatballs or the one in Burgundy sauce. And if you want to be really new for New Year’s Eve, go to one of the stands on Main Street in Flushing under the Long Island Rail Road and buy fish balls strung on a bamboo skewer for $1 or frozen ones in a super market.

Dragon Fruit - Ugly or Nice?

Some say it’s ugly looking, others and - I’m definitely one of those - say it’s exotic. Plucked from cactus like vines growing on trees, you’ll find them in Chinese markets and, more recently, they are turning up here and there around town. They are not cheap. Cut one open lengthwise. It's even more exotic with a creamy and kiwi-like, poppy seeded-looking interior.

The watermelon-like flavor is bland. But scooped out and added to a fresh fruit cup, it will definitely be a first-course conversation piece at dinner on New Year’s Day.

Old Salt/New Salt

On the food time line, first comes water and ice and then comes salt. Now that we are being assaulted with salts of every flavor, it’s news again. Sea salt made more of a splash than a sprinkle when it hit the gourmet markets. Now, there’s black sea salt from Sweden that adds even more sophistication to a dish. Truffle salt, a specialty salt imported from Italy that is a blend of ground Italian black truffles and sea salt, is irresistible. There’s also white truffle salt to add that heady, earthy truffle flavor - at a more realistic price - to scrambled eggs and pasta. 

Chefs are blending salt, ad infinitum, with a mixture of herbs and spices and bottling it under their name. It’s an effortless way for you to add flair and flavor to your cooking. In the New Year, when guests say, “It’s delicious,” you’ll be saying,” It’s just a dash of salt.”

Haute Beer

Serve beer at your next important dinner party. First wine, and now beer, has come of age in America. In Belgium, where they have more types of beer per person than any other place in the world, the variety makes matching each course of a meal possible - meat (light or dark) or fish and dessert. With all the microbreweries popping up here with draft and bottled beers, beers for winter and summer and every other occasion, not to mention premium-imported beers, this is now possible. Beer sommeliers are popping up, too.

Beer menus now describe the flavor. At Birreria, Eataly’s newly opened summer/winter rooftop beer garden, beers are listed on the menu not only with flavor briefings but size (suitable for one, two or three persons) and the alcoholic content. For example, Herbaceous and Creamy Saison, 5.8 percent; Ale Brewed with Honey, Cocoa and Ancho Chilies, nine percent; and Amber Spiced with Curry and Tandori, 8.5 percent. These are 750-ml. bottles that serve three. Some of these beers have an alcoholic content on par with wines.

Instead of just serving a Turkish beer in a glass with Turkish food or a glass stein of German beer with German food at your dinner party, be new and trendy. Go all out and match the beer to the course.

Onion Out/Tortilla In

Onion soup is out, but tortilla soup is in. On New Year's Eve, some depend on the Parisian tradition of a bowl that the French partake of after imbibing - onion soup. In 2012, look south of the border to take care of that morning after fog - chicken broth with tidbits of cheese and strips of tortilla afloat. It’s a Latin version of French onion soup. Feature sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup) at brunch on Jan. 1. Here’s friend Joan Nathan’s recipe from her story of American food through its people - “An American Folklife Cookbook.”

Sopa de Tortilla (Tortilla Soup)

Serves 4-6

10 corn tortillas

½ cup corn oil

2 medium tomatoes, peeled

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

5 cups chicken stock

Salt to taste

3 sprigs fresh parsley

3 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, cut into ¼-inch cubes

Cut the tortilla into 2-inch wide strips. Heat ¼ cup of oil and fry the strips until they are crisp but not browned. Drain on paper towels.

In a blender, puree the tomatoes with the onion and garlic until smooth.

In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining ¼ cup oil, add the tomato puree, and simmer, leaving it covered for 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock. When stock is boiling, add the tortillas, salt and parsley. Serve hot, garnished with cheese.