Foo(d) Bar Blog - Dessert

New Summertime Favorite - Mojito Granita

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:20:00 -0400

I've recently been lamenting the closing of our neighborhood water ice shop. It might not sound like a big deal, but I live in Arizona where water ice (Italian Ice) is a rarity. Everywhere I go it's either shaved ice, snow cones, or gelato, but I digress. I'd been reading on NPR's website about how easy it is to make granita lately, which is pretty much the water ice that I'm used to (although water ice tends to be finer grained, but that's a matter of technique, not ingredients), so I decided that it was finally time to give it a try. I was originally just going to try one of the recipes from the website, but while I was out in my yard, I noticed that our mint plant was looking like it could use a trim, so it dawned on me that I could probably take what I had learned from the article and concoct a Mojito granita, so that's what I set off to do. Here's the basic recipe I came up with:

3 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi White Rum
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (3-4 limes)
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
3 sprigs mint
Additional mint for garnishing

Start by combining the sugar and water in a sauce pan and bringing to a rolling boil. Continue to boil 5 minutes while stirring the syrup. Remove the simple syrup from the stove and add the three mint sprigs. Allow to steep for about 5 minutes, then discard the mint sprigs and continue to allow to cool. In the meantime, measure out 1/2 cup of rum. Add 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice and set aside. Next, chop the fresh mint until you have about 2 tbsp. A little extra never hurt anyone. Once the simple syrup has completely cooled, pour it in a metal (preferred) or glass 13x9 inch baking dish/pan. Add the lime juice, rum, and chopped mint. Stir to combine. Place the 13x9 pan in the freezer. Set a timer for 40 minutes. When it goes off, whisk (or stir with a fork). You'll need to repeat this every 40 minutes or so for several hours until the pan is full of loose, well defined crystals. This will take anywhere from 4-8 hours. Here's the granita after a few hours. Notice how much thicker it is and that there are definite crystals forming. When the granita is completely done freezing, it should be comprised of loose crystals and looks something like this: Serve the granita in chilled glasses. All I had handy were some double old-fashioned glasses, but they worked fine. You should note that this recipe has alcohol in it, which lowers the freezing point of the mix. If you omit the alcohol, add an equivalent about of water and change the stir time to every 30 minutes to keep large clumps from forming. The consistency of my final product was almost snow like. I probably could have packed it tightly and put it back in the freezer to get it closer to the water ice consistency I'm used to. I also heard that using a large metal spoon to scrape the ice as it freezes instead of stirring helps to produce smaller crystals. I may try that next time. Regardless, the granita turned out to be really great. It was light, refreshing, and tasted just like its namesake cocktail.

The Arizona Republic's 2008 Readers Choice Awards for Food and Dining

Sat, 17 May 2008 09:59:00 -0400

Back in 2006, I wrote a post criticizing the Ahwatukee Foothills News for their Best of Ahwatukee list. The winners in almost all categories were well known chain restaurants, leading me to wonder whether it was the paper pandering to their advertisers, or the case that people in Ahwatukee just had no taste. You'll understand then why I became completely infuriated when I came across the Arizona Republic's 2008 Reader's and Critic's Choice Awards for Best Dining & Food. While I can say that the critic's awards were all within the realm of possibility (although I find some of the categories odd), the Reader's Choice awards were completely appalling. By an amazing happenstance, Oreganos's Pizza Bistro (no link, their site requires an annoying ActiveX control, which is a possible security hazard) won 11 out of 31 categories. That's right. Not only did they win best pizza, but also best Italian, best sandwich, best dessert, best family owned, best for a first-date, best local treasure, best takeout, best patio dining, best worth the wait and best quick (non-fast) food. How the heck do you win both best quick and best worth the wait? I don't even know where to start with this. If Oregano's had simply won best pizza, I could have lived with that, although I would have personally disagreed. However, winning 11 out of 31 categories, some of them totally ridiculous completely smacks of ballot-stuffing. Come on AZ Republic, wake up! Learn how to run a poll. I've never lived in or visited another major city with such a crappy (and consistently crappy) reader's choice awards. Just so you can see the full list for yourself, here it is, along with some snarky commentary from me:

Best Dessert: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - I know people like the pizza cookie, but come on. There are some seriously talented pastry chefs in the valley, and this is the best that people could come up with?
Best Breakfast: Crackers & Co. - never been there, so I can't argue with this one.
Best Indian Restaurant: Indian Maharaja Palace - Indian food in the valley is mediocre at best.
Best Pizza: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - If this is the will of the people, fine. However, there is much better to be found as you can see from the runner-up list.
Best Neighborhood Mexican: Carolina's Mexican Food - This makes sense.
Best Bakery: Wicked Witch Bakery - Works for me, although I find the bakery selection in the valley to be seriously lacking.
Best Family-owned Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - it is a family owned restaurant.
Best Late-Night Eats: Fez - Couldn't agree more. Excellent food all the way through closing.
Best Place for a First Date: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - if someone took me here for a first date, it would also be the last date.
Best Salsa: Macayo's - WTF?!!?
Best Sushi: Ra See best salsa!
Best Restaurant 'Worth the Wait': Oregano's Pizza Bistro - with long waits both at lunch and on weekends, Oregano's is definitely popular. However, I can't say it's really worth the wait.
Best Wine Selection: D'Vine Bistro & Wine Bar - Been there and wasn't that impressed. If wine selection is really the criteria, then how could a place like Cowboy Ciao (even though I hate how their wine list is organized), or Kazimierz not win?
Best Barbecue: Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que - very hot topic. My pick would be Joe's Real BBQ, but that's just me.
Best Local Treasure: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - Seriously now. Local treasure? Can you say huh?
Best Chinese: P. F. Chang's China Bistro - Good Chinese isn't great in the valley, but we do have better than P. F. Chang's, and I don't mean Pei Wei.
Best Place for Takeout: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - NO!
Best Non-Chain Hamburger: Zipps Sports Grill - Oh boy. It's a typical bar burger. It isn't bad, but it's by far not the best. Both Delux and Chuckbox should easily have been at the top of the list.
Best Ice Cream/Frozen Novelty: Maui Wowi - Wowi Maui. Good job.
Best Middle Eastern Restaurant: Haji-Baba - Very popular and supplies most of the rest of the middle eastern/Mediterranean restaurants in the area.
Best Italian Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - It's a pizza place with a handful of other Italian dishes! There are many, many more Italian restaurants in the valley that are far superior.
Best Sandwich: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This is such a broad category. In many other cities they would break this one out. Mention this wind to a dozen of your friends and see how many of them react with "are you kidding me?"
Best Restaurant to Splurge: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar - it's definitely $$$, but for the money, I'd rather go to Kai.
Best Quick (Non-Fast) Food: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This one defies logic. Considering the long waits that are a staple of Oregano's, I don't see how you can read this one with a straight face. Even when you do finally get a table, it's often a long wait for the food!
Best Steakhouse: Donovan's Steak & Chop House - I think you'll find a lot of people divided on this one.
Best Romantic Restaurant: The Melting Pot - Fondue can definitely be romantic, however, for overall atmosphere, there are better choices.
Best Pub with Grub: Zipps Sports Grill - For the love of all things! Four Peaks, Sonoran, and about ten other places come to mind before I would have ever thought to myself "hey Zipp's!"
Best Patio Dining: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - The AZ republic actually got this right in their commentary on the win when they wrote "Located all over the Valley, with patios overlooking parking lots, streets and walls, it's hard to say what, exactly, it was about the outdoor dining spaces at the various Oregano's that azcentral.com voters found so alluring."
Best Health Food Store: Trader Joe's - I love Trader Joe's, and so does everyone else.
Best Sunday Brunch: T. Cook's - There is talent there, although the execution can be spotty.
Best Thai Restaurant: Pink Pepper Thai Cuisine - NO WAY IN HELL. Swaddee, Maylee's, Yuppha, and many more should be at the top of this list.

It's hard to get people to take Arizona seriously as a foodie destination when this is the best we can come up with.

Sugar Cookies

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:37:00 -0400

Over the weekend, Pere and I baked up a batch of sugar cookies. There are certain recipes I'm sentimental about, and sugar cookies are one of them. I prefer the recipe my mom's used ever since I was a little kid. She would make the dough early in the morning, or sometimes the night before, and later in the day, my brothers and I would use our cookie cutters to make all sorts of wonderful shapes. I once tried to make a huge cookie from all of the left-over dough, but that didn't work out as well as intended. I digress... Here's the family recipe, in case you want to give it a shot:

2/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
grated rind of one orange
1 tbsp orange juice

Start by creaming the butter and sugar. Add the beaten eggs and mix well (I use a stand mixer). Meanwhile, add the salt and baking powder to the flour and slowly add to the mixing bowl. Next, add the orange zest and orange juice. Continue mixing until all ingredients are well incorporated. I like to remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place into a greased bowl (for easier removal later). Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to chill. Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface. You may want to cut the dough in half to make it more manageable. Roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch and cut with your cutters. I find that using a dough cutter/scraper to transfer the cookies to ungreased cookie sheets is easier than doing it by hand. Once you have the cut cookies on cookie sheets, feel free to decorate with colored sugar. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven and desired doneness. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Italian Water Ice Finally comes to the East Valley

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:08:00 -0400

I've been living in Arizona for a little over four years now, and one of the things I miss most from the East coast is Italian water ice. Having lived not far from South Philly, with its large Italian population, you couldn't go far in summertime without bumping into the stuff. In Arizona, however, Italian water ice is almost nonexistent. It seems as though ice cream and more recently, gelato, are the most popular icy treats. All that has changed, though, with the opening of Teri's Italian Ice in Ahwatukee (Elliot and 48th). Although I haven't had a chance to visit yet, word on the street is that they are open, and serving 8 flavors a day from a rotation of about 40. On the East coast, water ice was strictly a summer treat. It looks like in Arizona, it's going to be a year round thing.