When Chef Gabriel Kreuther opened The Modern, an upscale, fine-dining restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, he set out to open “the first great restaurant in a museum.”

He was recruited in 2005 by famed New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer and together they have created an environment that merges food and art.

Chef Kreuther is from Alsace, France and says he takes inspiration from traditional Alsatian cooking as well as contemporary art and mixes them with local American ingredients to create his menu.

The result is food that rivals some of the works in the museum itself.

Watch the video below to see how he does it.

SEPARATED FROM THE REST of Spain by high mountains, Galicia was, until a few decades ago, entirely isolated and the country’s poorest region. The only way out of poverty was emigration. That is why Galician empanadas—square pieces cut from a large, crusty pie—are among the most widespread snacks all over Spain and as far away as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba, where Galician emigrants opened restaurants and bars. Elsewhere the small turnover-type versions, empanadillas, have become common, but in Galicia it is the large pie that can be seen in all the bakeries. It is cut into portion-size squares so you can see the crumbly pastry and rich filling and catch a whiff of delicate aromas.

Empanadas come with a variety of fillings based on meat or seafood. A tuna filling is especially popular. Light and flavorful, it is ideal warm-weather food.

My favorite tuna empanada recipe was given to me by Angelita García de Paredes Barreda, an 85-year-old nun who lives in Seville and comes from an illustrious military family. Many of her recipes were passed down by her relatives, and some were obtained in convents from other nuns who came from different regions.

Angelita’s dough is different from ordinary pie crusts in that it is made with olive oil rather than with butter or lard, and with white wine (or hard cider) rather than water. When I first tried it I remembered the words an elderly Jewish lady in Istanbul, whose ancestors had come from Spain, had used to describe the dough for her tapada (it means “with a lid”—that is what Sephardic Jews call an empanada). “You know when there is enough flour when the dough feels like your earlobe,” she had said.

Angelita’s pastry has no shortage of flavor and it melts in the mouth. The olive-oil-based dough is particularly easy to roll out: You do not need to dust the surface or the rolling pin with flour and it does not stick. Start from the center and work your way out in all directions.

——

Angelita’s Empanada

Serves: 6-8

FOR THE PASTRY

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup olive oil

½ cup dry white wine or hard cider

½ teaspoon salt

About 2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 egg, separated

FOR THE FILLING

1 large onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt, to taste

About 14 ounces canned tuna in oil, drained and flaked

20-24 black olives, such as Kalamata, pitted and chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

What To Do

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the pastry: Beat egg lightly with a fork in a large bowl. Beat in baking soda, oil, wine and salt. Gradually work in enough flour to make a soft, malleable dough, stirring it in with a fork to begin with, then working it in with your hands. Roll dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for an hour.

2. For the filling, fry onion and bell pepper in oil in a large skillet, stirring often, until soft. Add tomatoes, sugar and a little salt and cook over medium heat until sauce is jammy, about 15 minutes. Stir in tuna, olives and chopped eggs.

3. Grease a pie pan about 11 inches in diameter with oil. Divide dough into 2 pieces, one slightly less than twice as big as the other. Roll out the larger piece (keep the remaining dough in plastic wrap) on a smooth work surface—do not flour the surface or the rolling pin; the dough will not stick, because it is oil-based. Roll it out so that it is large enough to come over the edges of the pan, and carefully transfer dough to the pan by rolling it up onto the rolling pin, then unrolling it gently into the pan. Without stretching the dough, ease it into the corners. Trim the edges to a ½-inch border. Lightly beat egg white, and brush it all over the dough. Bake 10 minutes, then let cool.

4. Spread filling evenly in pie shell. Roll out remaining dough to a large circle and lay it carefully on top of filling so that it covers the edges of the bottom crust. Brush with egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon water. Bake until crust is lightly browned, 35-40 minutes. It is good hot or cold.

—From Ms. Roden’s “The Food of Spain” (Ecco, 2001)

Chef Harrison Keevil of Brookville Restaurant in Charlottesville, Va. shared this recipe.

“This soup changes from bite to bite. It goes from sweet to savory and back,” he said. Strawberries are the main ingredient, so use the best ones you can find.

Hands-On Time: 20 minutes 

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes 

Serves: 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Ingredients

• 1½ pounds (about 5 cups) strawberries, hulled
• ¼ cup good-quality white-wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• ¼ cup lightly packed mint leaves, cut into chiffonade
• Crème fraîche, for garnish

What To Do

1. Combine strawberries, vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl. Refrigerate and let macerate 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so.

2. Purée strawberries, vinegar, sugar and salt in a blender. Strain if desired for a seedless soup, but it isn’t necessary.

3. Serve garnished with mint and a dollop of crème fraîche.

….because cardiologists need to make a living too!

This is a fabulously simple, hearty, quick, delicious dish that you should feel thoroughly guilty about as you go for your third helping.  It’s got everything to make your taste buds say YES! and your heart to say NO!!!!

The best way to prepare this dish is to take large baked potatoes that were previously cooked, put in the refrigerator so they’re cold.

Take three large baked potatoes, and smash/cut into irregular chunks.  Put into super hot skillet, preferably a black skillet.  The skillet should have been coated with olive oil that is also sizzling hot.

Put the potatoes in, cover, and let fry so they are crispy on bottom.  Every 3-5 minutes, toss so as to crisp in other areas.  Add salt and pepper for seasoning.

Then add a quarter of cube of butter, let melt, as you are flipping the potatoes.

Meanwhile, there’s more fun in your other black skillet.  This one is frying up generous amounts of thick-cut apple smoked bacon.  Cook up 6 - 10 strips.  Let your conscience be your guide as to quantity.  You might just say 10 - Hail Mary’s and make it 12.

Back at the ranch, add a half pound of grated sharp cheddar cheese to the potatoes, cover pan, and reduce heat to low.

Toppings:

• six to eight stalks of scallions
• sour cream - quantity - your choice
• chopped jalapenos - Ole
• hot sauce - go for it
• avocado - why not
• diced tomatoes - two or three whole tomatoes

Be sure to set aside $300 for extra time you’ll need to spend with your private trainer.

Enjoy!!

Berry Season 101

You can get good-quality berries in most markets now through the end of summer—and raspberries and blackberries last into the fall. But each berry has a slightly different peak season: Strawberries and blueberries are approaching their peaks right now, while blackberries and raspberries are at their very best later in the summer, around August.

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Sticky Blackberry Barbecued Pork Ribs

The smallest and most tender pork rib, baby back ribs cook relatively quickly. This jammy, sweet glaze tastes best when you season the finished ribs generously with salt.

Hands-On Time: 1 hour 15 minutes Total Time: 3½ hours

Serves: 4

Justin Walker for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Karen Evans, Prop Styling by DSM

Ingredients

• 2 racks baby back pork ribs (about 2-2½ pounds each)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 1 tablespoon hot smoked paprika
• 1¼ cups honey
• ¾ pound (about 2½ cups) blackberries
• ½ cup blackberry preserves
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons bourbon (or whiskey)
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons red-pepper flakes

What To Do

1. Flip one rib rack over and insert the tip of a butter knife under tough membrane that covers back of rack. Wiggle knife to loosen membrane. Grab membrane with a paper towel and pull it off. Repeat with remaining rack.

2. At least 1 hour before cooking, mix 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon pepper and smoked paprika in a small bowl. Season ribs very generously on all sides with spice mixture. Let ribs come to room temperature, about 1 hour.

3. Meanwhile, set up a grill to cook with indirect heat: For a charcoal grill, light charcoal using a chimney starter. When coals have started to ash over on top, pour them all onto one side of lower grate. This creates a hot zone and a cooler zone. If using a gas grill, light burners on one side of grill, leaving others off to create a hot zone and a cooler zone. Or preheat an oven to 350 degrees to cook ribs indoors.

4. Place ribs meaty-side up on cooler side of the grill and close lid. (Make sure vents are partly open.) Or put ribs in a roasting pan and place in oven. Cook ribs 1 hour. If using a charcoal grill, light more charcoal briquettes in chimney starter and pour on top of coals to replenish the fire. Flip ribs meaty-side down. Cook until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, make blackberry glaze: In a blender, purée honey, blackberries, preserves, maple syrup, bourbon, vinegar, red-pepper flakes and remaining salt and pepper. Scrape into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until reduced and syrupy.

6. Flip ribs meaty-side up, brush generously with glaze and close the lid. Cook 1 minute. Brush meaty side with glaze again. Move ribs to hot side of grill and flip over. Brush underside of racks with glaze. Close lid. Cook 1 minute or until glazed and caramelized on both sides. If cooking inside, brush ribs with glaze and place under broiler until glazed and caramelized, 1-2 minutes. Season generously with salt and let rest 10 minutes before serving.

This time of year, berries abound, and you can only bake so many pies. Luckily the diminutive fruits pack enough pluck and flavor to lend complexity to a main course. If the idea of using berries in savory dishes gives you flashbacks to 1980s-style raspberry vinaigrette, buck up. The recipes offered here, like blackberry pork ribs and halibut with raspberry relish, feature assertive meats and big spicy, salty and tart flavors.

The use of fruit in main dishes goes way back—even further than the ’80s. Paul Freedman, professor of history at Yale University and author of “Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination,” said that the use of fruit, sugar and sweet spices in main dishes was fashionable in Europe during the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, when concoctions like sour cherry pie with cheese and eggs as well as chicken with pomegranate weren’t uncommon. The 18th century saw the rise of a new culinary style that separated the sweet from the savory. The focus of sauces shifted to intensifying the flavor of the meat with onions and broth reductions, rather than layering it with fruits and spices. “The spicy and sweet flavorings were replaced by a greater attention to the ingredients, and a preference for herbs over spices,” Mr. Freedman said.

Yet for those of us who love sweet and savory combinations, berries are a natural way to achieve that sweet-salty twinning. No one knows this better than food writer Janie Hibler, author of “The Berry Bible.” As an Oregonian, she lives in one of the country’s major berry-growing regions. She says that the key to cooking with berries is understanding how a particular berry’s sweetness and acidity will balance with the other ingredients in a dish. “I was very skeptical of fish with berries,” she said. “But you just need to recognize which berries have higher acidity. Acidic berries like gooseberries go best with fatty fish like mackerel. Halibut is not as fatty, so sweeter berries like strawberries or raspberries work really well.”

Ms. Hibler notes you should always taste your berries before starting to cook with them. If they’re super-sweet, just add a little extra lemon juice or vinegar to the dish. Remember, the recipes here are just the beginning—play around with the idea all you want. Nobody’s saying you can’t have berries for dessert, too.

____________

Blueberry and Cucumber Salad With Feta

This salad’s refreshing crunch is perfect in hot weather. Blueberries can be milder and less acidic than other berries, so they mellow the salty feta and sharp-tasting mint.

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Justin Walker for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Karen Evans, Prop Styling by DSM

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 3 heaping cups blueberries
• 2 hothouse cucumbers, peeled and seeds scraped out, cut into 1-inch pieces on a diagonal
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• 1 heart of romaine, chopped
• 2 lightly packed cups mint leaves

What To Do

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, honey and salt and pepper. Combine blueberries, cucumbers, scallions, feta, romaine and mint in a large serving bowl. Toss with dressing. Add more salt and pepper, to taste.

OK, I admit it.  I’m obsessed with my new meat grinder and I’m now a passenger with the Mad Hatter’s grinding device.

Adventure?  Or road trip with insanity?  That question, partially, will be answered tonight when we know about the results of a strange concoction that forever more will be known as “God Help Me Meatloaf”.

I’m also in danger of self rejecting myself as an 18/8 Man.  Would an 18/8 Man really conduct an experiment that is so wrought with strangeness and, well…pot luck?

OK – so what is this culinary chemistry act that fills me with such trepidation?

Below is the first act to this two act play.  I don’t yet know the outcome:

ACT ONE

I grind up about three pounds of pork loin and pork shoulder (the pork shoulder is so there is some extra fat, or else the meat is too lean for cooking).  I’m thinking that the ground pork will be turned into pork patties (we tried ground sirloin beef patties last week…phenomenal).

After grinding away, Chief Chef, aka wife, asks me with that ‘what the heck are you thinking of?’ voice, “what do you plan to do with the ground pork??”

Timid Chef - I respond with a defensive bounce in my voice…”pork patties.”

Chief Chef “Noooooooooo, won’t turn out well.  You need to turn it into meatloaf.” 

Timid Chef “Ok, I respond” and start to form meatloaf balls.

Chief Chef - “No, you’re not thinking…meatloaf needs lots of stuff to give it flavor.” 

Timid Chef - “Ok, why don’t you chop up fresh, de-seeded jalapeno, fresh oregano from the garden, scallions, and onions?”

Chief Chef chops away.  After everything is chopped, I proceed to mix, ready to form into  a meatloaf ball.

Chief Chef – “You’re not ready.  Meatloaf needs other meats to give it more flavor and texture.”

Passive Aggressive Timid Chef – “Whatever you say” – I’m now forming a quiet subplot to show Chief Chef who’s the real boss.

I proceed to grind up yesterdays grilled sirloin steak.  Then add minced spicy chicken left over from Thai restaurant.  Then add three Italian sausage links.  Then take a quarter of a loaf of three day old drying homemade bread.  The bread being the ultimate act of passive aggression…’because I feel like it.”  The bread as it grinds spews out of the machine like an insidious onslaught of asbestos.

I’m no longer consulting with Chief Chef.  I simply mix everything together into a meatloaf ball, put in preheated oven at 400 degrees…and pray.

Chief Chef – “Set for one hour.”

I set the timer for 40 minutes.  Chief Chef always overcooks meatloaf.  I do not mention this fact.  Worried, Timid Chef lives in fear to second guess Chief Chef.

Chief Chef – “what else did you add?”

Worried Timid Chef – “some leftover meat”.  A half lie.  Then I pray some more.

ACT TWO

Ok, just out of the oven….what does it look like? What does it taste like?  Oh God, please do not let this day go down in 18/8 culinary infamy…

Discreetly, I cut into the meatloaf to make sure it is not over cooked.  It is perfect - moist and juicy in the middle; a dark patina of crust on the outside. 

I take a bite to test the results…very discreetly, and fully ready to toss the experiment into the garbage can.

“Oh my God”…are the first words that leap from my tongue.  “Wow….This is incredible… extraordinary.”

Chief Chef – tastes, giving me the all knowing culinary eye contact.  “Scottie…this is really, really good.  This is the best meat loaf I have ever tasted.”

“Scottie” …that’s a good sign that I’m being stroked in adoring approval…I think.

Anyway, for a moment, I can bask in culinary glory and puff my chest knowing that God Help Me Meatloaf can be proudly rebranded as OMG Meatloaf.

A culinary tale with a very happy ending.

Written by the Author of this blog and an Interesting and Intriguing man himself. He recommends this read to all cooking and brew lovers!

“A sophisticated cookbook for beer lovers contains recipes by such noted chefs as Michael Richard of Citrus and Francesco Antonucci of Remi, and includes such dishes as A Shellfish Trio in Ale and Roasted Winter Vegetables with Honey-Pilsner Glaze.”

http://www.amazon.com/Famous-Chefs-Other-Characters-Cook/dp/0385480415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332883148&sr=8-1