While trolling around the Freret Street Festival (a food, arts and live music fest the first Saturday of each month), I was drawn to a smokin’ smoker, where, inside there were fat cobs of in-the-husk corn, golden, hot and enticing.   Roasted corn is genius.  In this case,  no butter was necessary, the smoker gave off intense flavor and the husks kept the corn tender, sweet and moist.  For Sunday dinner, I’m hooking up the family with my twist on Emeril’s Roasted Corn - skip the cilantro, add finely crumbled Cotija cheese sprinkled on the hot corn, just before serving.

Emeril’s New Orleans, the flagship restaurant of the fleet, has just been nominated for the “Outstanding Service” award from the James Beard Foundation!

Congratulations and good luck!!!

This weekend is the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival.  Ponchatoula is about 45 minutes from New Orleans - a great little town that has been celebrating our magnificent, solid-through-the middle strawberries, for over 30 years.  After some rather intriguing politics and legal wrangling, Ponchatoula was declared “The Strawberry Capital of the World” in 1968.  Click on that link for very interesting reading about how the whole thing went down.  The Strawberry Festival is a dizzyingly delicious event with all sorts of local foods and most important, all things strawberry, including the “bake off” winners in categories for Strawberry Cake; Strawberry Jelly/Jams; Strawberry Pie; Strawberry Muffin, Loaves & Cookies; Strawberry Misc.; and other Strawberry Dessert.  Inspired by the bright red berries stunning bright, floral flavor, I’m heading to Ponchatoula to taste all the spectacular foods and pick up a flat of strawberries so I can whip up Emeril’s Strawberry Shortcake with Fresh Strawberry Bread.  Heavenly.

Let’s hope that my garden grows abundantly this year!!!  It’s the first time I’ve started a rooftop garden, so I’m sure I’ll have lots to learn and some killer pesto by the end of the summer!

So far, I’ve made a stop at my local hardware store for some basic tools, soil and planters, and I’ve visited the farmer’s market and stocked up on a variety of herbs–basil, rosemary, thyme, mint, lavender, parsley and oregano.  The weather hasn’t been quite warm enough for me to plants my seedlings, but in a week or so, I should have them in pots.  I can’t wait!!!

And if any of you are green-thumbed readers, please feel free to share your tips on herb and vegetable container gardening!

 

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Picture 1 from 2: ...is WAY better when it's dressed with a handful of fresh arugula leaves!

I love making pizza at home, but sometimes I don’t always come up with the best topping combinations.  For instance, take this pizza which is topped with mushrooms and fresh mozzarella.  On its own it’s good, but with the addition of a few leaves of arugula, it goes from good to great!  The fresh greens give it a bright and bitter flavor that pairs well with the earthy mushrooms and creamy cheese.  (And it makes me feel like I’m eating something healthy…)

 

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Picture 1 from 4: I think I found my new favorite neighborhood coffee shop!

Down the street from my apartment is a coffee shop called the Roasting Plant. It’s shtick is freshly ground coffee beans that are brewed to order for each cup of coffee or shot of espresso. And to top that, they even roast all the beans in their storefront, brew their coffee at the perfect water temperature and serve their drinks in heat-insulating glass mugs. Wow. Pretty thorough, huh?

Last Monday I had tea at Takashimaya, a fancy Japanese department store on NYC’s 5th Avenue.   The tea was fabulous.  A friend and I shared two pots–one was a sweet tea flavored with peach, rosehips and citrus that was garnished with a stick of rock candy to sweeten the cup, the other was a savory tea made of toasted buckwheat soba.  However, the best part of out midday snack were the pressed rice sandwiches.

The sandwiches were made of triangular shaped patties of pressed sushi rice that had the slightest flavor of rice wine vinegar and wasabi, and were topped with paper thin slices of fresh cucumber and smoked salmon, and laid on a bed of seaweed salad.  The perfect accompaniment to the teas were ordered and a great Asian alternative to the English pairing of cucumber-watercress sandwiches and tea!

With the spate of cold weather several weeks ago, one of our local sushi bars got in a whole Blue Fin tuna, which made him and many diners (especially me) very happy.  When I got the call from Yoshi, I hightailed it into the restaurant where he was conducting a tuna tutorial.  Among many things, I overheard him teaching about the different types of tuna (young, Bigeye, Bluefin, and Yellow), he slid his ever-sharp knife through a lacy filet of the tuna neck section - “kama.”  The richness of the tuna yields particularly flavorful, mouth watering morsels.  As a “treat,”  Yoshi served us some “Negi-Toro” maki - fatty belly scraps, diced extra-fine with scallions and tucked onto a rice ball wrapped on seaweed.  He also dotted the top of each maki piece with a curl of nubbly, golden uni (sea urchin).  The combined flavors were heavenly - creamy, rich, mineral, ocean-fresh.  No soy or any sauce, just a small swipe of wasabi to lend a whisper of sharpness.   Sipping on a cool, low intensity sake didn’t hurt either.

Hey folks!

So I’m now doing this Twitter thing on the web.

There’s already lot of stuff happening on there. Even my good friend Martha is on.

I think it’ll be a fun way to share what we’re cooking up in the kitchen.

Hope you’ll follow along. Check it out…

http://twitter.com/Emeril

- Chef E

Now this is the way to eat and shop!  Lucky guy.  I wonder if I could get someone to push me around in a grocery cart?  I wonder if I could get in a grocery cart?  Hmmmm…