BBQ – America’s Food

Before indoor grill pans and the George Foreman, many a soul north of the Mason-Dixon braved the elements to fire up grill, often amid the snowflakes, in search of the taste of summer. As many get spring fever, many too get grill fever.As the weather gets a bit warmer, the trees and flowers bloom and the start of grilling season is upon us. From the cut and quality of the meat from the butcher, to the rubs, salts, marinades and sauces to add the perfect finishing touch, we hope the information below will help you to start your summer as the King or Queen of the Charcoal.

In Matters of Meat:

DEAN & DELUCA’s Butcher Shop is stocked only with meat and poultry from farmers and ranchers dedicated “farm to fork” and to meeting strict animal welfare standards, including:

• no animal byproducts in the animal’s feed
• no added hormones
• 100% Source-verified natural beef
• no antibiotics, ever

One of our purveyor’s, Brandt Beef, received the Master Chefs’ Institute Seal of Excellence for its commitment to producing a superior culinary product.

Dry Rubs Rule!

If you are yet to try dry rubs, it’s time. The depth of flavor they add to your food of choice is exceptional.The right combination of spices can give transport you to the lands of Morocco or Jamaica, or bring the flavor of Texas BBQ to your backyard. Try DEAN & DELUCA Dry Rubs with beef, tofu, fish, pork chops, chicken breasts and vegetables.

Things to keep in mind:

1. Maintain a light hand. Three to four tablespoons of spice rub seasoning should be enough for two pounds of food.
2. To apply a rub, sprinkle it over your choice of meat, poultry, fish or veggies and lightly rub into the surface with your hands. Or place the rub in a large plastic bag, add your ingredients and shake to coat.
3. Let spiced food sit in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before cooking.

Spice it up!

DEAN & DELUCA has scoured the globe pairing and packaging complementary spices so you can simply grind, shake or flake, grill and be happy.And yes, variety is the spice of life. Check out all our options for matching with your favorite fish, meat, poultry, veggies or meat substitutes.

Sauce me baby one more time.

Eastern Carolina, Louisiana or Kansas City, Texas and California, every region has adopted their own special sauce, the perfect finish or accent to complete the bbq flavor profile. Before, a delicious BBQ war sets off, how about we decide to have it all?From award winning barbecue chef Charlie Mckenna comes an exclusive Dean & DeLuca gift set of three sauces exemplifying the best of barbecue.

The Memphis Style Sauce is sweet and smoky pairs perfectly with pork, chicken, ribs and anything you can throw on the grill.In the traditional Memphis style it is a champion of versatility and achieves beautiful carmelization and balance on any meat.

The Alabama Style Sauce is a billowing in popularity after remaining relatively unknown outside of North Alabama.It is a mayonnaise and apple cider vinegar based sauce that is amazing smothered over chicken, french fries, ribs, and on grilled corn.

The Carolina Style Sauce is vinegar and tomato based Western Carolina sauce that is tangy, smoky, and savory.It squeals to be poured on top of a pill of pulled pork.

This summer let’s proclaim barbecue – America’s food.

Spring: The World in Bloom

Easter Eggstravaganza!

For many, dying eggs is the true beginning of the Easter Season, a time of family and joy.With Easter just a few short weeks away you can get a jump-start this spring holiday by using nature’s own pretty hues from fruits, vegetables and spices.DEAN & DELUCA has tested new natural ways in which you can create a beautiful Easter Eggstravaganza – perfect for all your decorating and hiding needs this holiday.

It’s Natural!

Generally, there are two methods used when dyeing eggs: cold dipping and hot boiling.
Cold dipping produces subtler shades and is usually the preferred method for using multiple colors on the same egg.
Hot boiling produces much more intense shades, but these eggs are for decoration only, not eating, if you choose not to “blow out” the insides of the egg. We prefer being able to eat our delicious creations, so we blow out our eggs (instructions below).

For Naturally Dyed Eggs try using turmeric, blueberries or beets.

Ingredients:
• 2 cups roughly chopped, raw beets (for pink/red), OR
• 2 cups blueberries, crushed (for blue/purple), OR
• 1 teaspoon ground

Brussles Sprouts: The Perfect Holiday Sidekick

Kevin Johnson, executive chef of the Leawood, Kan., Dean & DeLuca, says Brussels sprouts started popping up on American restaurant menus thanks in part to the legions of chefs across the country that took a shine to the vegetable.He likens the leafy green orbs to a woman’s little black dress—the perfect accessory to any meal, especially during the holidays.

“Most chefs have added some sort of Brussels sprouts dish to their menus,” says Johnson.“Shaved Brussels sprouts salads, pan-roasted, caramelized, sautéed—they’re adaptable.”

How does Johnson like his Brussels sprouts?

“Au gratin-style or roasted with prosciutto and shallots,” says Johnson.

Here are two of Johnson’s favorite Brussels sprouts preparations for your holiday table.

Brussels Sprouts Au Gratin
Serves 10 – 12

INGREDIENTS
Kosher salt
2 pounds Brussels sprouts, outer leaves and stems removed
1/2 cup minced shallot
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Pinch of ground white pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
¼ cup demi glaze
1/3 cup chicken stock
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 cup grated Swiss cheese(1/4 pound)

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 400°F and butter a 4-quart baking dish. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

To make sauce sauté shallots in butter until softened. Add flour and stir to make a paste. Slowly whisk in milk, cream, and demi glaze and cook until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Turn sauce down to warm/low and stir in Swiss cheese. Set sauce aside.
Drain the Brussels sprouts and set aside.Combine cooked Brussels sprouts and sauce and transfer to prepared baking dish and spread out evenly.
Bake the sprouts uncovered at 400°F until bubbly and golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Let sit 4-6 minutes before serving.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto & Shallots
Serves 10 – 12

INGREDIENTS
Kosher salt
2 pounds Brussels sprouts, outer leaves and stems removed and cut in half
½ pound shallots, julienne
¼ pound prosciutto, julienne
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil + 1 tablespoon
Pinch of ground white pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil and roast uncovered about 12-15 minutes or until caramelized.Turn oven down to 325°F and roast an additional 6-8 minutes or until tender.Sauté shallots and prosciutto in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss mixture with roasted Brussels sprouts and season with white pepper; top with fresh thyme.Serve hot.

Encounter of the Brussels Sprouts Kind

Like any good love affair, I had a head-over-heels encounter when I least expected it several years ago, over a candlelit dinner.

The object of my affection? Brussels sprouts.

Although Brussels sprouts weren’t entirely foreign to me, I had somehow managed to mature into my 40s without making their acquaintance.Growing up in Iowa, I consumed my weight in bushels of sweet corn, Pyrex dishes of Durkee onion-topped green bean casserole and stuffed pork chops—a pleasant (if not exciting) and sturdy Midwest sort of diet.Mom was a good cook but didn’t venture much beyond the tattered and splattered recipes in her collection, all of which were neatly written on index cards in her perfect cursive and called for lots of margarine and canned soups as primary ingredients.Brussels sprouts weren’t part of her culinary point-of-view and they were probably not in the neighborhood grocery’s produce department either, but perhaps sandwiched between the broccoli and cauliflower in frozen foods.

I discovered the earthy vegetable by accident at Kansas City’s sexy-cozy Pizza Bella in 2007. Not exactly a classic pairing with a pie, roasted Brussels sprouts are offered as an eclectic appetizer on the locally owned pizzeria’s menu.The dish created a buzz in food circles around town, just as the Brussels sprouts craze was lifting off on the national cuisine landscape.

Intrigued and curious, I ordered up a heaping mound of Pizza Bella’s crispy Brussels sprouts tossed in pancetta vinaigrette, almonds and pecorino Romano along with a potato-gorgonzola-radicchio-balsamic pizza.Expectations?I had none since I was a newcomer to the mini cabbage-like veggie.

My personal Brussels sprouts discovery was before the advent of text messaging, instant message or e-mail-inspired lingo, so my reaction to the dish would have been translated today simply as “OMG.”

Brussels sprouts are now a regular part of my weekly lineup—they’re versatile and can be dressed up for company or come to the table casual.And they’re a wonderful addition to a holiday menu—along with citrus-glazed grilled or smoked turkey, honey-baked ham or tenderloin and mashed sweet potatoes and Parker House rolls—Brussels sprouts have a spark of personality to capture anyone’s attention—and affection.

Rock on, Brussels sprouts.BFF.

-Kimberly Winter Stern

It’s Pie Season

Heritage Turkey, What’s the Big Deal?

Its turkey time!

This year, Heritage Turkey is the ‘It’ Bird.What’s the Big Deal?Heritage birds are leaner, more flavorful and have less breast meat than standard turkeys.Heritage Turkeys are typically humanely raised in the most natural and low stress of environments, free ranging on at least an acre of land, and fed 100% vegetarian feed in addition to clean pasture.

Interesting facts about Heritage Turkey:

• Domestic turkeys that retain characteristics no longer present in the majority of birds raised for
consumption since the mid-20th century.
• Naturally mating, with a long, productive outdoor lifespan, and a slow growth rate; conceived and raised
in a manner that closely matches the natural behavior and life-cycle of wild turkeys.
• 25,000 birds raised across the more than ten different breeds; this is a tiny minority of the more than
200,000,000 industrial turkeys raised.
“Although these breeds make up far less than one percent of the 265 million turkeys produced in America
last year, many chefs consider them the best thing to eat on Thanksgiving… [Heritage turkeys] take much
longer to grow than mass-produced ones. Thus, they develop more fat and a robust flavor.” ~ Kim
Severson, the New York Times

DEAN & DELUCA is fortunate to have strong ties to the Good Shepard Ranch in Lindsborg, KS, a farm run by Frank Reese who himself is a fourth generation poultry farmer, and considered
the “God Father of American poultry”.We proudly offer a 10 and 14 pound option of the Heritage Turkey from Good Shepard Ranch, available for purchase beginning November 8.

All Hallow’s Eve

Paella: The Flavor of Spain

This week DEAN & DELUCA has explored the flavors of Spain.As we conclude the week, we are proud to feature a paella recipe from The DEAN & DELUCA COOKBOOK by David Rosengarten with Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca.Paella is Spain’s extraordinary rice casserole. We’re convinced that paella originated from Spain’s Valencia region and contained snails, rabbit, and string beans – however this is not the version we are accustomed to seeing in paella served in America’s Spanish restaurants.We hope you enjoy the following recipe that we’ve made for years – we’re convinced it’s the next best thing to a ticket on Iberia.

1/4 Cup Spanish Olive Oil (like Les Costes Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1/2 LB Chorizo, mildly cured, cut in 1/2-inch rounds
11/2 LB Chicken Thighs, cut into 16 pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb short-grain rice, rinsed
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 medium fennel bulb, coarsely chopped
5 teaspoons finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons saffron threads
6 sprigs of thyme
6 cups of chicken stock
1 1/2 tablespoons of Pernod or another anise flavored liqueur
1 1/2 lbs medium shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 cup water
16 mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
16 small clams, rinsed (preferably Manila)
1/2 lb monkfish, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 lb oil-cured black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 lemon, sliced into wedges
Coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish

Preheat over to 350. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat in a wide skillet or paella pan.Quickly cook the chorizo slices until brown, about 30 seconds per side.Set browned chorizo aside on paper towel.Next, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, and reduce the heat to moderately high.Pat the chicken dry and season both sides with salt and pepper.Cook chicken until brown, about 5 minutes per side and reserve with chorizo once browned.In the same pan, put the rice and quickly stir over low heat with a wooden spoon until translucent, about 2 minutes.Add onion, peppers, fennel, garlic, red pepper flakes, and cook another 3 minutes.Add the wine, saffron, thyme, and 5 cups of chicken stock, making sure there is about 1/2 inch of liquid to cover the ingredients.Taste liquid for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.Bring to a boil, add reserved cooked chicken, browned chorizo, and Pernod.Place pan in the oven for 20 minutes, adding more chicken stock if the rice has soaked up the stock. While the rice is cooking, add the 1 cup of water to a large stock pot and bring to a boil.Add mussels and clams and cover, shaking the pot frequently until the mussels and clams have opened.Discard any mussels and clams that have not opened during cooking.Bury the shrimp in the rice after 10 minutess of cooking time.When done, the rice should be tender, and the consistency of the paella should be slightly wet.

The result is Sabor a Morir Por!

Romancing the Chip

“Complain all day,” says Mr. G, glancing at the bright-red tube resting in my lap.“It’s not going to change the fact that snack food choices are limited when driving from Kansas to Colorado.”

Slumping down in the passenger seat as the car bound for Breckenridge swishes across the Sunflower State, an unsightly pout tightens my face, my right hand poised to grab another potato chip from the cylinder.Even before crunching down on the perfectly formed wafer—flawless food shapes are always suspicious—I know the icy soda resting in the console won’t dislodge residual potato fragments soon to be glued to the roof of my mouth.

Despite uninitiated popular opinion, the long westbound I-70 stretch between Kansas City and Denver isn’t a vast culinary wasteland.My good friend Chef Jasper Mirabile insists on road tripping by car every Christmas to Vail so he, wife Lisa and daughter Alex can feast on authentic Heartland eats along the way.Jasper lists among his faves a family-style fried chicken dinner at Abilene’s Brookville Hotel, fried-onion-topped hamburger sliders downed with frosty Cokes at Salina’s Cozy Inn and in Hays, Gella’s Diner and Lb. Brewing Co. chicken fried chicken.

“And sometimes when leaving Hays, we’ll get three two-piece chicken dinners to go from Al’s Chickenette,” he says.“Just for something good to munch on.”

But Jasper’s food detours are off the beaten path.For a stomach requiring a quick sustenance refuel, the truck stops and convenience stores snuggling up to the interstate’s exits stock corn nuts, endless candy bars, withered hot dogs tumbling on rolling machines and beef jerky. To satisfy a long-simmering chip fetish—my top snack pick for long-distance car jaunts—I’m stuck with commercial chips that don’t even taste like … real potatoes.

Sighing and chewing on a canned chip, I fantasize about the pink bag of Spanish-made patatas fritas accompanied by roast-turkey Paninis Mr. G and I finished off before leaving KC. Crispy-crisp, lightly coated with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil and just the right sprinkling of Himalayan pink sea salt, the San Nicasio potato chips tugged at my palate in a delicious, insistent way.

“Nope, I can’t eat just one,” I said during that potato-eating frenzy, savoring chip after sexy chip.

My well-traveled friend Shelly stops by the night I’m packing.Having recently returned from a whirlwind tour of Barcelona, I figure she can authoritatively attest to the home-fries quality of the award-winning chips I thrust at her.

“Aren’t these spectacular?”I’m crowing about potato chips, I think.Bags of chips with individual batch numbers so you can trace the origins of their pedigreed ingredients. Chips made from slow-cooked Spanish potatoes.Chips that defy conventional standards.

“Yes,” Shelly murmurs, delicate chip crumbs falling from her quivering lips.“Yes, they are.”

Speeding toward the Rockies and a holiday of relaxation and mountain air, I retire the sad, half-eaten tube of chips to the back seat and tear open a bag of M&Ms. The memory of the San Nicasio chips teases me mercilessly.

“Damn Spaniards,” I grumble.

-Kimberly Winter Stern

Overland Park, Kan.-based freelance writer Kimberly Winter Stern writes travel, food, lifestyle and design. Also known as the gregarious and cuisine-informed Kim Dishes, listeners tune in weekly for her on-the-road segments on “LIVE! From Jasper’s Kitchen,” a popular Kansas City radio food show. Prolific in eating, writing and discovering, this foodie satisfies an innate desire to sample the world’s gastronomic rainbow by meeting food artisans and trendsetters, gaining insight into the culinary points-of-view of everyone from cheese makers, chocolatiers and chefs who set their city’s locavore pace to farmers who are passionate producers.Stern is a sought-after writer, with work appearing inBetter Homes and Gardens, Unity, KANSAS! Magazine, 435 South magazine, KC Homes & Gardens, Generation Boom, Shawnee Magazine, KC Magazine, KC Home Design, KC Business and Midwest CEO. Stern is a national blogger for the Dean & DeLuca Gourmet Food Blog where she cooks, styles, shoots and writes about life and cooking … and loves to lick the bowl clean. This writer may have been given product and/or other compensation from Dean & DeLuca for this post.

Ice Ice Baby

Jeni Britton Bauer steps out of tasting central at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio, to spread the gospel during a phone interview.Since I’m sitting in Kansas City, without the advantage of being in the hustle-bustle world of making some of the country’s best-darned ice cream (and let’s face it, the missed opportunity to lick a spoon from a test batch), I put on my best imagination.

My vision of Jeni? A creative sprite-meets-mad-scientist dressed in a white lab coat splattered with drizzles from flavorful experiments, blonde hair swept up in a colorful scarf, glasses perched atop her head, brow furrowed from a morning of scrutinizing a batch of cantaloupe ice cream.She oozes the spirit of American handmade goodness.

Although my point of reference isn’t Jeni’s central in Ohio, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing the ice cream worth screaming for.I’m amazed when Jeni—who started her business 16 years ago—says nearly 300 employees are involved in making the artisan ice creams.Her army of ice cream fanatics includes farmers who grow proprietary produce and dairy products; folks who research, develop and produce the collections of flavors; office administrators; people who write copy and design labels; and those who ship and distribute the frozen pints of joy to Scoop Shops throughout Ohio and Tennessee and stores like

Summer Salad Days

It’s deliciously liberating to stand over a heat-radiating grill on a 95-degree day, turning a sizzling

Brew, chill, serve: What’s your favorite iced tea?

by

Something is Fishy

America’s love affair with the sea’s bounty has always been robust—we stuff ourselves to the gills with

Ice Cream Dream

If you haven’t heard about Jeni’s Ice Cream, you are missing out.We got Jeni to answer some of our pressing questions about the name she is making in the dessert world.

Tell us the history of Jeni’s Ice Cream.How did you get started with the business?

When I was young, I worked at a French bakery in Columbus, Ohio. I fell in love with pastry and started making American baked goods with French techniques (lighter sugar, fresher ingredients, and better overall quality). I also started to play around with ice cream and ingredients. The first ice cream I “made” was a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired ice cream: store-bought milk chocolate ice cream mixed with cayenne pepper essential oil. When I eventually started making ice cream from scratch at home I realized that no one was making ice cream with the same great ingredients we used at the patisserie, so I started a small ice cream shop called Scream in 1996 the North Market, our city market in Columbus, Ohio. I look at it now as my practice ice cream shop. Scream closed in the late ‘90s, I took some time off to draw up a proper business plan and opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002 in the North Market. It’s one of 9 shops now in Ohio; we also have a shop in Nashville, Tenn.

Have you always had a love for ice cream? Do your friends and family also share in this love?

Flavor drew me to ice-cream. I’d studied art in college at Ohio State University and worked in a bakery, but not until I mixed essential oil of cayenne with a store-bought ice cream and served it to party guests who went crazy (“It’s hot! It’s cold!”), was I inspired to make ice-cream from scratch. When I started, everywhere I looked there were ingredients and opportunities to use ice-cream to explore flavor, history, art, and various cultures.

I’m a huge dessert freak; I love them all, but especially ice cream and frozen yogurts. Butterfat—the fat in cream—melts perfectly at body temperature. Other fats don’t do that. Butterfat absorbs flavor: When you put butter next to an onion, it’ll start to taste like an onion. So you can flavor butterfat with all these wonderful things, and then freeze it so the flavor is locked in there, and then it gets released through the warmth of your tongue. And sharing ice cream is one of the best things, too. Everybody gets their own flavor and has a taste of everyone else’s flavor. If you’re dating someone you might give them a lick off your cone. It’s just such a shareable experience.

And, yes, to say the least, my friends and family share my love of ice cream.

June 7th is National Chocolate Ice Cream day, what other flavor(s) do you think deserve a national holiday.

Salty Caramel. I’ve been making it since the mid ‘90s, and it’s the reason people came downtown to my little shop way back when in a city that was already crowded with great ice cream. It put us on the map. Nobody can resist the flavor of pure caramel, but it’s not an easy one to pull off. Caramel is one thing: caramelized sugar. The taste of caramelized sugar can’t be synthesized. Synthetic caramel flavorings are awful, but most companies use them because the process of making caramel is treacherous and intense—especially if you’re doing it on the scale we are. It’s dangerous. Sugar has to reach 385 degrees, it spits and spurts, and if it lands on you, it burns straight through your skin. And it’s very difficult to get right. There is about a 2-second window when the caramel is perfect, so we have only two people in company (in addition to me) who can get it right in our kitchen. If you stop before the window or after the window it just doesn’t have that deeply emotional caramel scent in your nose. We toast our sugar in a copper kettle over fire. That’s the traditional way to do it. The flavor of our caramel is not measured by the dropper-full, but by the sight and smell of the sugar as it darkens over the flame. I think that deserves a national holiday.

Do you have a base assortment of flavors? Do you have seasonal flavors? How often do you bring in new flavors?

We have 16 “Signature” (year-round) flavors: These are flavors that we find ourselves never tiring ofthat we always want no matter what. Whereas we may tire of something fanciful or novel, these are the ones that have stood the test of time. They’re expertly crafted, balanced, and delicious. Examples: Salty Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate, and Ugandan Vanilla Bean. We have Perennial flavors: flavors that come back every year when the season calls for them Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk, Lemon & Blueberries frozen yogurt, and Roasted Pumpkin 5 Spice, et al. Limited Edition flavors are the latest flavors; they’re the experimental flavors that we have a lot of fun with—as do our customers. Customer favorites right now are Mango Lassi (frozen yogurt), Juniper & Lemon Curd (ice cream), and Plum Sake Sorbet.

How do you come up with flavors?

I always start with what is around me. Something excites me—a flavor, a color, an emotion and then I build context around that. Flavor is what surrounds you. I find flavor inspirations by following my own curiosities.I start with what is around me and growing in the Midwest (sweet corn, black walnuts, spice bush berries, fresh strawberries, stone fruits); what’s happening around the world (the

Ice Cream Dream

If you haven’t heard about Jeni’s Ice Cream, you are missing out.We got Jeni to answer some of our pressing questions about the name she is making in the dessert world.

Tell us the history of Jeni’s Ice Cream.How did you get started with the business?

When I was young, I worked at a French bakery in Columbus, Ohio. I fell in love with pastry and started making American baked goods with French techniques (lighter sugar, fresher ingredients, and better overall quality). I also started to play around with ice cream and ingredients. The first ice cream I “made” was a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired ice cream: store-bought milk chocolate ice cream mixed with cayenne pepper essential oil. When I eventually started making ice cream from scratch at home I realized that no one was making ice cream with the same great ingredients we used at the patisserie, so I started a small ice cream shop called Scream in 1996 the North Market, our city market in Columbus, Ohio. I look at it now as my practice ice cream shop. Scream closed in the late ‘90s, I took some time off to draw up a proper business plan and opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002 in the North Market. It’s one of 9 shops now in Ohio; we also have a shop in Nashville, Tenn.

Have you always had a love for ice cream? Do your friends and family also share in this love?

Flavor drew me to ice-cream. I’d studied art in college at Ohio State University and worked in a bakery, but not until I mixed essential oil of cayenne with a store-bought ice cream and served it to party guests who went crazy (“It’s hot! It’s cold!”), was I inspired to make ice-cream from scratch. When I started, everywhere I looked there were ingredients and opportunities to use ice-cream to explore flavor, history, art, and various cultures.

I’m a huge dessert freak; I love them all, but especially ice cream and frozen yogurts. Butterfat—the fat in cream—melts perfectly at body temperature. Other fats don’t do that. Butterfat absorbs flavor: When you put butter next to an onion, it’ll start to taste like an onion. So you can flavor butterfat with all these wonderful things, and then freeze it so the flavor is locked in there, and then it gets released through the warmth of your tongue. And sharing ice cream is one of the best things, too. Everybody gets their own flavor and has a taste of everyone else’s flavor. If you’re dating someone you might give them a lick off your cone. It’s just such a shareable experience.

And, yes, to say the least, my friends and family share my love of ice cream.

June 7th is National Chocolate Ice Cream day, what other flavor(s) do you think deserve a national holiday.

Salty Caramel. I’ve been making it since the mid ‘90s, and it’s the reason people came downtown to my little shop way back when in a city that was already crowded with great ice cream. It put us on the map. Nobody can resist the flavor of pure caramel, but it’s not an easy one to pull off. Caramel is one thing: caramelized sugar. The taste of caramelized sugar can’t be synthesized. Synthetic caramel flavorings are awful, but most companies use them because the process of making caramel is treacherous and intense—especially if you’re doing it on the scale we are. It’s dangerous. Sugar has to reach 385 degrees, it spits and spurts, and if it lands on you, it burns straight through your skin. And it’s very difficult to get right. There is about a 2-second window when the caramel is perfect, so we have only two people in company (in addition to me) who can get it right in our kitchen. If you stop before the window or after the window it just doesn’t have that deeply emotional caramel scent in your nose. We toast our sugar in a copper kettle over fire. That’s the traditional way to do it. The flavor of our caramel is not measured by the dropper-full, but by the sight and smell of the sugar as it darkens over the flame. I think that deserves a national holiday.

Do you have a base assortment of flavors? Do you have seasonal flavors? How often do you bring in new flavors?

We have 16 “Signature” (year-round) flavors: These are flavors that we find ourselves never tiring ofthat we always want no matter what. Whereas we may tire of something fanciful or novel, these are the ones that have stood the test of time. They’re expertly crafted, balanced, and delicious. Examples: Salty Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate, and Ugandan Vanilla Bean. We have Perennial flavors: flavors that come back every year when the season calls for them Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk, Lemon & Blueberries frozen yogurt, and Roasted Pumpkin 5 Spice, et al. Limited Edition flavors are the latest flavors; they’re the experimental flavors that we have a lot of fun with—as do our customers. Customer favorites right now are Mango Lassi (frozen yogurt), Juniper & Lemon Curd (ice cream), and Plum Sake Sorbet.

How do you come up with flavors?

I always start with what is around me. Something excites me—a flavor, a color, an emotion and then I build context around that. Flavor is what surrounds you. I find flavor inspirations by following my own curiosities.I start with what is around me and growing in the Midwest (sweet corn, black walnuts, spice bush berries, fresh strawberries, stone fruits); what’s happening around the world (the

Ice Cream Dream

If you haven’t heard about Jeni’s Ice Cream, you are missing out.We got Jeni to answer some of our pressing questions about the name she is making in the dessert world.

Tell us the history of Jeni’s Ice Cream.How did you get started with the business?

When I was young, I worked at a French bakery in Columbus, Ohio. I fell in love with pastry and started making American baked goods with French techniques (lighter sugar, fresher ingredients, and better overall quality). I also started to play around with ice cream and ingredients. The first ice cream I “made” was a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired ice cream: store-bought milk chocolate ice cream mixed with cayenne pepper essential oil. When I eventually started making ice cream from scratch at home I realized that no one was making ice cream with the same great ingredients we used at the patisserie, so I started a small ice cream shop called Scream in 1996 the North Market, our city market in Columbus, Ohio. I look at it now as my practice ice cream shop. Scream closed in the late ‘90s, I took some time off to draw up a proper business plan and opened Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002 in the North Market. It’s one of 9 shops now in Ohio; we also have a shop in Nashville, Tenn.

Have you always had a love for ice cream? Do your friends and family also share in this love?

Flavor drew me to ice-cream. I’d studied art in college at Ohio State University and worked in a bakery, but not until I mixed essential oil of cayenne with a store-bought ice cream and served it to party guests who went crazy (“It’s hot! It’s cold!”), was I inspired to make ice-cream from scratch. When I started, everywhere I looked there were ingredients and opportunities to use ice-cream to explore flavor, history, art, and various cultures.

I’m a huge dessert freak; I love them all, but especially ice cream and frozen yogurts. Butterfat—the fat in cream—melts perfectly at body temperature. Other fats don’t do that. Butterfat absorbs flavor: When you put butter next to an onion, it’ll start to taste like an onion. So you can flavor butterfat with all these wonderful things, and then freeze it so the flavor is locked in there, and then it gets released through the warmth of your tongue. And sharing ice cream is one of the best things, too. Everybody gets their own flavor and has a taste of everyone else’s flavor. If you’re dating someone you might give them a lick off your cone. It’s just such a shareable experience.

And, yes, to say the least, my friends and family share my love of ice cream.

June 7th is National Chocolate Ice Cream day, what other flavor(s) do you think deserve a national holiday.

Salty Caramel. I’ve been making it since the mid ‘90s, and it’s the reason people came downtown to my little shop way back when in a city that was already crowded with great ice cream. It put us on the map. Nobody can resist the flavor of pure caramel, but it’s not an easy one to pull off. Caramel is one thing: caramelized sugar. The taste of caramelized sugar can’t be synthesized. Synthetic caramel flavorings are awful, but most companies use them because the process of making caramel is treacherous and intense—especially if you’re doing it on the scale we are. It’s dangerous. Sugar has to reach 385 degrees, it spits and spurts, and if it lands on you, it burns straight through your skin. And it’s very difficult to get right. There is about a 2-second window when the caramel is perfect, so we have only two people in company (in addition to me) who can get it right in our kitchen. If you stop before the window or after the window it just doesn’t have that deeply emotional caramel scent in your nose. We toast our sugar in a copper kettle over fire. That’s the traditional way to do it. The flavor of our caramel is not measured by the dropper-full, but by the sight and smell of the sugar as it darkens over the flame. I think that deserves a national holiday.

Do you have a base assortment of flavors? Do you have seasonal flavors? How often do you bring in new flavors?

We have 16 “Signature” (year-round) flavors: These are flavors that we find ourselves never tiring ofthat we always want no matter what. Whereas we may tire of something fanciful or novel, these are the ones that have stood the test of time. They’re expertly crafted, balanced, and delicious. Examples: Salty Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate, and Ugandan Vanilla Bean. We have Perennial flavors: flavors that come back every year when the season calls for them Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk, Lemon & Blueberries frozen yogurt, and Roasted Pumpkin 5 Spice, et al. Limited Edition flavors are the latest flavors; they’re the experimental flavors that we have a lot of fun with—as do our customers. Customer favorites right now are Mango Lassi (frozen yogurt), Juniper & Lemon Curd (ice cream), and Plum Sake Sorbet.

How do you come up with flavors?

I always start with what is around me. Something excites me—a flavor, a color, an emotion and then I build context around that. Flavor is what surrounds you. I find flavor inspirations by following my own curiosities.I start with what is around me and growing in the Midwest (sweet corn, black walnuts, spice bush berries, fresh strawberries, stone fruits); what’s happening around the world (the

Fennel, orange + red onion salad

by

Sammich Nation

If memory serves most of us correctly, we gobbled bunches of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during our formative years.In fact, the National Peanut Board declares the average child will have consumed somewhere around 1,500 PB&J’s before graduating high school.But that’s just the innocent beginning of our nation’s love affair with the sandwich.Simple, gourmet, toasted or on rye with a liberal schmear of mayo or mustard, Americans have a super-sized appetite for sammiches—we happily chow down 45 billion annually.

Crown the sandwich king of American food—there are countless shops and franchises peddling them and infinite ways to make the filling between two slices of bread interesting.Not the sexiest of cuisines in terms of style, but a sandwich is certainly amongst the most satisfying.And I’m certain there’s some unwritten law in the universe that requires a picnic to have at least one sandwich on its al fresco menu to be deemed a proper picnic—preferably a crusty baguette piled with Italian meats and cheeses.

In grade school I toted lunchboxes packed with braunschweiger sandwiches—thick rounds of smoked pork liver sausage nestled on tears of iceberg lettuce topped with Hellmann’s (we weren’t a Miracle Whip household) and slapped between two sheets of Wonder bread (Mom trimmed the crusts).Certainly not an asset on the lunchroom trading floor, but when my humble sandwich was paired with an irresistible Hostess Twinkie, I could score the luscious from-scratch chocolate buttermilk cake Shari’s mom made or a bag of Fritos from any number of classmates. One of Dad’s signature culinary triumphs was a mouthwatering Reuben sandwich he made by special request, bucking tradition by replacing Russian dressing with homemade Thousand Island. My first real appliance post-college was a toaster oven in which I deftly turned out bubbling ham and cheese sandwiches.And when the Panini craze caught on I joined right in, getting perverse pleasure from making a picture-worthy sandwich with artisan bread and paycheck-busting ingredients—and then smooshing it beyond recognition on a VEG (Very Expensive Grill).

Sandwiches make some lovely cameo appearances in memorable cinematic scenes. Leave it to some YouTube-loving movie fan to post a nearly two-minute video of Greatest Movie Sandwiches, including two of my favorites.There’s Meg Ryan’s iconic everything-on-the-side pastrami sammie at Katz’s Deli in New York City and the Runny Egg Sandwich Adam Sandler made in “Spanglish”—a lousy flick rescued by a crave-worthy recipe (Thomas Keller originated the insanely delicious combo of bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheese topped with a fried egg).Add to that my personal honor roll of big- and small-screen sandwiches—the intent munching of Carnegie Deli’s mile-high classic creations in Woody Allen’s “Broadway Danny Rose” and in season five of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David’s valiant attempts to swap sandwich ingredients with Ted Danson, who, just like my stubborn Joy Elementary buddies, refused the sales pitch.Maybe if David had thrown a bonus Twinkie into the trade, Danson would’ve accepted the switcheroo.

Or perhaps the offer of a lowly PB&J could have sealed the deal with Danson.Ah, to remember a simpler sandwich time.Long live the sandwich, the undisputed king of American food.

-Kimberly Winter Stern

Dean & DeLuca stores across the country contribute to the nation’s annual 45-billion-sandwich tally.Executive Chef Andres Moncayo of the Charlotte, N.C. D&D says his store sells approximately 96,500 sandwiches each year.The most popular?“Roasted sirloin and Havarti cheese with caramelized onions and horseradish cream sauce,” grins chef Moncayo. “Not your average sandwich.” My stock would have tripled in value during school lunchtime trading that little number.Two to go please, chef.

Here chef Moncayo shares two sammiches, coming soon to the Dean & DeLuca Wine Bar in Charlotte. Add some homemade sweet potato fries, a crunchy pickle spear and a laid-back attitude for the perfect summer dinner.

CHICKEN MUFFELETTA SANDWICH
Note:The olive spread must be made ahead and refrigerated for at least two days.
Serves one

INGREDIENTS
2 ounces Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 ounce capers
0.7 ounces peeled garlic cloves, minced
1 cup diced celery bunch
3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
¼ bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped
¼ cup green onion, chopped
½ teaspoon oregano
0.06 quart extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces red wine vinegar
4 ounces grilled chicken breast, sliced thin
½ ounce provolone, sliced
½ ounce Swiss cheese, sliced
1 ounce baby arugula
Focaccia rosemary bread

METHOD
Combine first 10 ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, making sure everything is immersed in olive oil and refrigerate at least two days.To make the sandwich: halve the bread lengthwise.Spoon olive spread on one side and coat the other side of the bread with oil.Add the chicken breast, cheeses and arugula.

MEAN PANINI
Serves one

INGREDIENTS
1 ounce each:
Genoa salami, sliced thin
Prosciutto, sliced thin
Mortadella, sliced thin
Capicola ham, sliced thin
Fontina cheese, sliced
Mozzarella cheese, fresh
Tomato confit
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
One ciabatta bun, sliced

METHOD
Drizzle both halves of ciabatta with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.Layer meats, then cheeses on bun.Top with tomato confit and other half of bun.Preheat a Panini press and cook sandwich according to manufacturer’s instructions until golden and crisp, three to five minutes.Or, if cooking on the stove, preheat a skillet with butter or oil to medium low.Add sandwich, and then press a heavy pan to weigh it down.Cook until golden and crisp, three to four minutes per side.

Overland Park, Kan.-based freelance writer Kimberly Winter Stern writes travel, food, lifestyle and design. Also known as the gregarious and cuisine-informed Kim Dishes, listeners tune in weekly for her on-the-road segments on “LIVE! From Jasper’s Kitchen,” a popular Kansas City radio food show. Prolific in eating, writing and discovering, this foodie satisfies an innate desire to sample the world’s gastronomic rainbow by meeting food artisans and trendsetters, gaining insight into the culinary points-of-view of everyone from cheese makers, chocolatiers and chefs who set their city’s locavore pace to farmers who are passionate producers.Stern is a sought-after writer, with work appearing inBetter Homes and Gardens, Unity, KANSAS! Magazine, 435 South magazine, KC Homes & Gardens, Generation Boom, Shawnee Magazine, KC Magazine, KC Home Design, KC Business and Midwest CEO. Stern is a national blogger for the Dean & DeLuca Gourmet Food Blog where she cooks, styles, shoots and writes about life and cooking … and loves to lick the bowl clean. This writer may have been given product and/or other compensation from Dean & DeLuca for this post.

Sammich Nation

If memory serves most of us correctly, we gobbled bunches of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during our formative years.In fact, the National Peanut Board declares the average child will have consumed somewhere around 1,500 PB&J’s before graduating high school.But that’s just the innocent beginning of our nation’s love affair with the sandwich.Simple, gourmet, toasted or on rye with a liberal schmear of mayo or mustard, Americans have a super-sized appetite for sammiches—we happily chow down 45 billion annually.

Crown the sandwich king of American food—there are countless shops and franchises peddling them and infinite ways to make the filling between two slices of bread interesting.Not the sexiest of cuisines in terms of style, but a sandwich is certainly amongst the most satisfying.And I’m certain there’s some unwritten law in the universe that requires a picnic to have at least one sandwich on its al fresco menu to be deemed a proper picnic—preferably a crusty baguette piled with Italian meats and cheeses.

In grade school I toted lunchboxes packed with braunschweiger sandwiches—thick rounds of smoked pork liver sausage nestled on tears of iceberg lettuce topped with Hellmann’s (we weren’t a Miracle Whip household) and slapped between two sheets of Wonder bread (Mom trimmed the crusts).Certainly not an asset on the lunchroom trading floor, but when my humble sandwich was paired with an irresistible Hostess Twinkie, I could score the luscious from-scratch chocolate buttermilk cake Shari’s mom made or a bag of Fritos from any number of classmates. One of Dad’s signature culinary triumphs was a mouthwatering Reuben sandwich he made by special request, bucking tradition by replacing Russian dressing with homemade Thousand Island. My first real appliance post-college was a toaster oven in which I deftly turned out bubbling ham and cheese sandwiches.And when the Panini craze caught on I joined right in, getting perverse pleasure from making a picture-worthy sandwich with artisan bread and paycheck-busting ingredients—and then smooshing it beyond recognition on a VEG (Very Expensive Grill).

Sandwiches make some lovely cameo appearances in memorable cinematic scenes. Leave it to some YouTube-loving movie fan to post a nearly two-minute video of Greatest Movie Sandwiches, including two of my favorites.There’s Meg Ryan’s iconic everything-on-the-side pastrami sammie at Katz’s Deli in New York City and the Runny Egg Sandwich Adam Sandler made in “Spanglish”—a lousy flick rescued by a crave-worthy recipe (Thomas Keller originated the insanely delicious combo of bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheese topped with a fried egg).Add to that my personal honor roll of big- and small-screen sandwiches—the intent munching of Carnegie Deli’s mile-high classic creations in Woody Allen’s “Broadway Danny Rose” and in season five of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David’s valiant attempts to swap sandwich ingredients with Ted Danson, who, just like my stubborn Joy Elementary buddies, refused the sales pitch.Maybe if David had thrown a bonus Twinkie into the trade, Danson would’ve accepted the switcheroo.

Or perhaps the offer of a lowly PB&J could have sealed the deal with Danson.Ah, to remember a simpler sandwich time.Long live the sandwich, the undisputed king of American food.

-Kimberly Winter Stern

Dean & DeLuca stores across the country contribute to the nation’s annual 45-billion-sandwich tally.Executive Chef Andres Moncayo of the Charlotte, N.C. D&D says his store sells approximately 96,500 sandwiches each year.The most popular?“Roasted sirloin and Havarti cheese with caramelized onions and horseradish cream sauce,” grins chef Moncayo. “Not your average sandwich.” My stock would have tripled in value during school lunchtime trading that little number.Two to go please, chef.

Here chef Moncayo shares two sammiches, coming soon to the Dean & DeLuca Wine Bar in Charlotte. Add some homemade sweet potato fries, a crunchy pickle spear and a laid-back attitude for the perfect summer dinner.

CHICKEN MUFFELETTA SANDWICH
Note:The olive spread must be made ahead and refrigerated for at least two days.
Serves one

INGREDIENTS
2 ounces Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
1 ounce capers
0.7 ounces peeled garlic cloves, minced
1 cup diced celery bunch
3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
¼ bunch fresh Italian parsley, chopped
¼ cup green onion, chopped
½ teaspoon oregano
0.06 quart extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces red wine vinegar
4 ounces grilled chicken breast, sliced thin
½ ounce provolone, sliced
½ ounce Swiss cheese, sliced
1 ounce baby arugula
Focaccia rosemary bread

METHOD
Combine first 10 ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, making sure everything is immersed in olive oil and refrigerate at least two days.To make the sandwich: halve the bread lengthwise.Spoon olive spread on one side and coat the other side of the bread with oil.Add the chicken breast, cheeses and arugula.

MEAN PANINI
Serves one

INGREDIENTS
1 ounce each:
Genoa salami, sliced thin
Prosciutto, sliced thin
Mortadella, sliced thin
Capicola ham, sliced thin
Fontina cheese, sliced
Mozzarella cheese, fresh
Tomato confit
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
One ciabatta bun, sliced

METHOD
Drizzle both halves of ciabatta with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.Layer meats, then cheeses on bun.Top with tomato confit and other half of bun.Preheat a Panini press and cook sandwich according to manufacturer’s instructions until golden and crisp, three to five minutes.Or, if cooking on the stove, preheat a skillet with butter or oil to medium low.Add sandwich, and then press a heavy pan to weigh it down.Cook until golden and crisp, three to four minutes per side.

Overland Park, Kan.-based freelance writer Kimberly Winter Stern writes travel, food, lifestyle and design. Also known as the gregarious and cuisine-informed Kim Dishes, listeners tune in weekly for her on-the-road segments on “LIVE! From Jasper’s Kitchen,” a popular Kansas City radio food show. Prolific in eating, writing and discovering, this foodie satisfies an innate desire to sample the world’s gastronomic rainbow by meeting food artisans and trendsetters, gaining insight into the culinary points-of-view of everyone from cheese makers, chocolatiers and chefs who set their city’s locavore pace to farmers who are passionate producers.Stern is a sought-after writer, with work appearing inBetter Homes and Gardens, Unity, KANSAS! Magazine, 435 South magazine, KC Homes & Gardens, Generation Boom, Shawnee Magazine, KC Magazine, KC Home Design, KC Business and Midwest CEO. Stern is a national blogger for the Dean & DeLuca Gourmet Food Blog where she cooks, styles, shoots and writes about life and cooking … and loves to lick the bowl clean. This writer may have been given product and/or other compensation from Dean & DeLuca for this post.