Author: Elizabeth Keyser

Video Prep Chili

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After prepping the food for a cooking video last week, I came home with extra prep from a chicken ranch salad. At first I thought I’d make soup, so I sautéed the vegetables. There was extra chopped red onion and chopped parsley from another dish (we shot five ), so I added those. Chopped the remaining half of a jalapeno that had topped the cheese on another dish from the shoot,  deconstructed stuffed cabbage, otherwise known as cabbage-beef casserole. Crumbled bacon was the finishing touch on the Ranch chicken salad. Tossed into the pan, along with an extra slice of cooked back-up bacon, rough chopped.  I was reveling in not having to be precise.  I decided to make chili rather than soup. Added a can of whole tomatoes and their sauce. In the freezer, I found chicken stock, and added about a cup and a half.  Chili powder, from the cabbage-beef casserole, and a teaspoon of homemade habanero sauce from the fridge. Used my favorite little spatula to cut the tomatoes into quarters.  Look at all those vegetables! Makes me feel healthy …

Spring Breakfast

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It’s the first day of Spring and the ground is covered with snow, but there’s a change in the light and air. And I didn’t burn the toast. My friend’s chickens are laying eggs. I felt very lucky when Lynn gave me these beautiful eggs. Her chickens have the best diet, non-gmo grains supplemented by foraging. Just look at that yolk. Here’s a 5-minute breakfast. Toast some bread. My favorite morning toast is The Luncheonette, which is baked by Fairfield Bread Company. I’m a taste-tester for Fairfield Bread Company. Scramble the egg, add lots of chopped parsley because it’s growing in the garden already and it’s filled with minerals, and it will help distract if you’re not using cheese because it’s Spring and it’s time to eat less and move more. Pour egg-parsley mixture into an oiled hot cast iron pan. When the eggs are set, remove, fold and place on the toast. Assemble and serve.

No Shopping Blizzard Baking

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We don’t go shopping before a storm. Storms have taught us that we have enough/too much food in our house. When the storm baking bug struck, I foraged through the cabinet. I found a bag of plantain flour. Must have bought it at the International Food Bazaar supermarket in Bridgeport. I wasn’t sure what it would be like. I once used a fresh yellow plantain to make dough for empanadas filled with chicken, olives and raisins, and it came out great. But this soft plantain flour was different from a mashed plantain. To understand the flour’s properties, I mixed some water with it. It took on a batter-like consistency. It smelled sweet like a ripe banana and tasted sweet and banana-y. Marion Cunningham’s Fannie Farmer Baking Book, unfailingly reliable, has a recipe for rum-raisin banana bread that’s not too sweet. I followed the recipe, with a few substitutions. Plantain and water mixture replaced the banana, Amaro grappa replaced the rum (a fitting end for a raisin), and they soaked and pumped up while the ingredients were assembled, rather than overnight. And because we had no walnuts (and …

Top Three Pizza Places in Fairfield County

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Connecticut’s reputation as a pizza state rests firmly in New Haven, where Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern play out a long rivalry. New Haven pizza’s roots are Italian immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s. Today, New Haven-style thin-crust pizzas are being blistered in ovens ovens all over Fairfield County. Pepe’s opened its first outpost in Fairfield more than 10 years ago, and it still can’t shake mutterings “It’s not as good as New Haven,” because how can an old seasoned oven compete with one that’s been firing only a dozen years?  (Take that, futurists and technocrats!) I have enjoyed pizzas at Pepe’s in Fairfield. We met friends who were driving back to New Jersey from a Connecticut casino. They didn’t know that pizza was a Connecticut Thing. The long  lines at Pepe’s, the anticipation, seemed to be a sign it was worth waiting for. Getting a table felt like an honor, followed by the rush of ordering. Our friends loved the pizzas, and packed up half to take home to their kids. When the check came, we were glad they’d done so well …

Amore Cucina: Great Pizza in Stamford

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Photos by Tom McGovern, Courtesy of Amore Cucina Bruno DiFabio’s love of pizza came full circle when he opened Amore Cucina & Bar. It’s where he made his first pizza when he was ten. Today, the six-time World Pizza Champion and restaurateur owns the 40-year-old joint in Springdale, Stamford, where he updates  Italian-American classics, and continues his exploration into the artisan pizza he started at RéNapoli (King of Naples) in Old Greenwich. The original 1975 red neon sign is retro hip. Inside, exposed brick and worn wood, a long bar that seats 30. There’s a dining room too. But if you’re a pizza geek, you’ll want to sit at the end of the bar and watch the pizza guy.   After making New York-style pizza professionally for 20 years, DiFabio went to Italy to study under a grand master pizzaiolo. He studied the science of pizza making, traveled the world to see where the ingredients are grown and processed. He collected dew in the Dolomite Mountains to get yeast for a starter dough he’s kept going for years. He filmed a pilot. He judged pizza on the …

Fortina Pizzeria Rocks Harbor Point

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Fortina had a reputation before it arrived in Stamford. The youthful, hip Italian-American pizzeria blasts loud music and blisters pizzas in a wood-fired oven. The Stamford site in Harbor View is the third in the group that had been drawing Fairfield County pizza lovers across the New York border to Armonk and Rye Brook. Thin crusts are speckled with char. Toppings pay tribute to Italian-American classics — San Gennaro with sausage and peppers; ‘the original’ famous Rays; and spicy meatballs with pickled cherry peppers. But Fortina’s most famous pizza is the Luigi Bianco ($21) with black truffle oil smeared over two creamy cheeses, slightly tangy robiola and mild burrata, and a sprinkling of “parm,” as the menu calls it. It’s a rich pie, that pairs well with Fortina’s Bibb salad with apple and radish. Fungi pizza ($19) was laden with mushrooms roasted in the wood-burning oven. Their smoky earthiness stood up to melted Talleggio, with its slight tang of washed rind. Roasted bone marrow melted into the whole. Fresh parsley, in a rough, country chop, was the final blessing for this …

Pepe’s Pizza’s History in the Pies

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Photos by Tom McGovern, courtesy of Pepe’s Pizza Fresh-clam pizza defines Pepe’s for me. I can’t order anything else. Recently,  Gary Biamonte, grandson of Frank Pepe, who opened the original Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven , came to the Fairfield Pepe’s and got me to try a few others. He showed the history of Pepe’s through its pies. The story starts with the crust. That hand-formed, thin, charred crust is the foundation of the pizza and the business. Frank Pepe started as a baker. He arrived in New Haven in 1909, an illiterate boy from Maiori on the Italian Amalfi Coast . After working in a factory and returning to Italy to fight in World War I, he came back to New Haven and opened a bread bakery in what is now Frank Pepe’s The Spot, next door on Wooster Street. Distribution, the bane of many a small business, was a stumbling block. But if he started making “apizza” (pronounced “ah-beets” in his Neopolitan dialect)… the customer would come to him. The New Haven apizza legend …

Tips for Making Great Pizza at Home

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Start with good dough. We use a slow fermented flaxseed-wheat-white dough. If it’s frozen, defrost over night in the fridge. Then let the dough sit covered with a towel until it is room temperature. Knead until it acquires a soft, smooth elasticity, like the picture on the right. On the left, dough before kneading. On the right, dough after kneading. Next, flatten into a disk, and press and pull the dough into a thinner round. Keep the work table lightly floured.  If the dough fights you, put a towel on it and let it rest a bit. Place the dough on a floured pizza peel before doing the toppings. The key to toppings is not to add too much. Especially the tomato sauce. Too much wetness won’t let the pizza rise up as it cooks, and can produce a soggy center crust. To transfer the uncooked pizza from peel to the stone in the oven, make sure your peel is floured enough to let the pizza slide. Put the peel to the stone, tilt, and jerk your …

Bread, Butter and Jam Breakfast

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There’s something about waiting to open homemade jams and jellies until it’s starkest winter. Last weekend, with friends visiting, I opened a jar of peach jam I made in summer. The scent of peaches released from the jar. Breakfast was simple. Assorted bread from Fairfield Bread Co., Raisin Rye, Pretzel Rolls, Bridgeport Sour, Flaxette, warmed in the oven. Butter, jams and jelly. A frittata made with potatoes but no cheese since one of our guests is allergic to dairy. And homemade tomatillo salsa. (Leftover from last night’s dinner of tacos.) When I opened a jar of wine berry jelly, it turned out to be syrup. No worries, we mopped it up from our plates with warm bread.  Next time I’ll serve it with pancakes. The peach jam was the biggest hit. Our 18 year old friend loved the big pieces of peach, and ate it with a fork. Good homemade food and artisan bread makes the simplest meal a feast.      

Pozole at Home, Sort of

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Cooking at home is a continuous process. We bought pork hocks from Patti Popp at Sport Hill Farm in Easton. The pigs were raised by Patti and her husband Al. We rubbed the hocks with salt and pepper, and roasted them on a bed of onions, carrots and celery, and added water before covering the pan with foil to create moist heat. That night we ate the hocks with mashed potatoes, gravy and honey-parsley carrots. I sliced some tender meat off the bones. Men like putting the whole hock on their plate. The next day, we had leftover meat. Hocks are the perfect consistency for making a quick homemade pozole. What is pozole? It’s a Mexican stew made of hominy and pork. It’s served on weekends at restaurants such as Los Poblanos in Norwalk and El Paraiso in Bridgeport. The fun part is it’s served with a whole bunch of condiments — green and red sauce, limes, avocado, raw onions, dried oregano, fried tortillas or tostados smeared with beans and topped with shredded lettuce and avocado. I love the whole enterprise of …