Kitchen Conservatory

More rain and now we have had twice the amount of rain as in a typical year. What does all this rain mean? Nothing has been planted this spring in our field of mud. The spring flowers look lush and marvelous, but the steady rain washes out the nectar in the flowers. The flowers need two days without rain in order to produce nectar for the bees to gather. So what do bees do when they have to stay inside the hive? Sex. The bees are madly reproducing, but have no honey yet to show for all their efforts. One hive was angry, probably because it had been pestered by a racoon (remember the bees attacking Winnie the Pooh?), so we replaced the queen. Even so, it may take the whole season for that hive to simmer down. Unfortunately, some of our visitors have experienced first-hand those angry and frustrated bees!

So I’m still eating our local honey from last year, which is still available at Kitchen Conservatory. Here is a lovely sauce for roasted vegetables:

Honey-Balsamic Sauce

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/3 cup golden raisins
• salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the vinegar and honey and bring to a boil and cook for a minute to reduce slightly. Add the capers and raisins and season with salt and pepper. Toss on roasted vegetables, such as asparagus or cauliflower.

The Three-in-One Wood Trivet is a beautiful present that is perfect for Mother’s Day. Made exclusively for Kitchen Conservatory, this hand-crafted triangular-shaped trivet set has three separate trivets that nest together. Made of locally grown wood and custom-made by a local artisan, the simple and creative design will compliment any decor.

Please stop by Kitchen Conservatory to see and feel our new trivets!

Local sausage maker Mark Sanfilippo is profiled today in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A veteran of working in Mario Batali’s kitchen, this native St. Louisan has returned home to start a salumi in the Tower Grove neighborhood. Everything Sanfilippo makes is from scratch using the highest-quality ingredients.

At Kitchen Conservatory, Sanfilippo will teach about the Italian way with salt cod, including his homemade baccala. He will also demonstrate salt cod potato bruschetta, fried salt cod, and braised salt cod with tomatoes and chick peas. Register now for “The Codfather” on June 14 from 10:30 am to 1 pm.

The Summer 2008 class schedule features two hundred brand-new cooking classes. View the list and sign up.

Summer means endless grilling, so Terry Black of Super Smokers and Kirk Warner of Kirk’s Traveling Kitchen will each lead a Day in the Kitchen on Grilling. These special classes are limited to six lucky people. Terry does ribs, ribs, and more ribs from start to finish on July 26. Kirk covers brisket, pulled pork, and hot-smoked fish on August 10.

Another highlight is Lou Rook and Glenn Bardgett of Annie Gunn’s preparing the most expensive grades and cuts of beef on August 16. Here’s your chance to sample and compare the finest beef.

The chefs teaching at Kitchen Conservatory for the first time are Naam Pruitt (a native of Thailand and a Thai cookbook author) on June 26, Alan McClure (a maker of fine chocolates from bean to bar) on June 29, Nicola Wissler (a very creative cake decorator) on July 20, Matt Dawson of Peppertini’s on July 21, Eric Kelly of ~Scape on July 24, Christy Augustin (the new pastry chef from Sidney Street Cafe) on July 28, and Hiroshi Seki (chef-owner of Seki’s, a Japanese restaurant in the Delmar Loop) on August 12.

Date Night for Couples continues to be hugely popular, so we have added several new themes: Wok on the Wild Side on July 25, Paris Nights on August 2, The Grill from Ipanema on August 23, plus others. Yes, we have added more sessions of the classic favorites: Tuscany for Two and Margarita Madness. Some customers have repeated those classes just because the food tastes so delicious.

Of course, we’ll do pies (blackberry, peach, blueberry, and lemon) on June 24. Some customers have been known to repeat the pie class just to eat pie! And mark your calendar so you do not miss our annual canning class on August 3: Wham, Jam, Thank You Ma’am.

Best class title? “Pick a Cod, Any Cod” or “Bastille My Heart.”

Register now.

Time is quickly approaching to celebrate the ‘rents. Yes, you could send flowers or a tie or join the mobs of people at a mediocre Sunday buffet brunch. Here’s a more memorable gift: a cooking class.

For Mom on Sunday, May 11 from 1 to 3:30 pm: Enjoy a demonstration cooking class with a menu of raspberry champagne sparklers, minted green pea soup, blue cheese souffle on salad greens with caramelized nuts, roasted red pepper-goat cheese tart with a pine nut crust, and baked Alaska. Everyone will get a copy of the recipes, plus enjoy eating a delicious meal. Don’t miss the baked Alaska: homemade mocha ice cream on sponge cake covered with Italian meringue and then flamed and served with luscious chocolate caramel sauce.

For Dad on Sunday, June 15 from 1 to 3:0 pm: This fully participation, limited-size class takes place at our outdoor grills with a menu of barbequed spareribs St. Louis-style, wild salmon with herbed butter and salsa, lemon-rosemary chicken, and peppercorn-encrusted beef with salsa verde. Chef Kirk Warner will guide the dads in grilling the juiciest and most flavorful foods, plus providing easy-to-use recipes to take home.

The Belgians have invented some great foods: waffles, miniature cabbages, beer that tastes like champagne, and Belgian endive. Fully grown, endive is a curly, dark green, bitter leaf. But, over a century ago, a Belgian farmer mixed up his endive and asparagus and instead covered his endive crop with dirt to prevent photosynthesis in order to produce white asparagus. Instead he produced a new food: white endive…and they taste much better than white asparagus.

Usually Belgian endive is served raw in salads where it is bitter and crunchy. The French like to wrap each endive in ham, cover with bechamel sauce and cheese, and bake. I love to brown the endive and then slowly braise in the oven until the inside is creamy. The tang of endive is a wonderful taste paring with rich meats.

Caramelized Belgian Endive

• 6 Belgian endive
• 1/2 cup butter
• salt and pepper

In a fry pan, melt the butter and place the endive. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and place in a 325-degree oven. Cook for 2 hours, more or less. After one hour, turn each endive over to brown the other side.

After an action-packed week of hosting cookbook author Diana Kennedy as she taught classes at Kitchen Conservatory, here are some of the things we learned from the grande dame of Mexican cuisine:

• A plastic bag (any plastic bag) should be reused and reused and reused.
• Constantly compost.
• Superior Mexican cheese is sold at El Morelia Super Mercado on St. Charles Rock Road.
• Not only is Mexican oregano different from Greek oregano, but cassia cinnamon cannot be substituted for Mexican canela cinnamon.
• In the kitchen, the hair must be pulled back. (”Who do you think you are, Rachel Ray?”)
• All questions must be addressed to the chef; there are 364 other days to chatter among yourselves.
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are an abomination; chicken backs are the best part of the bird.
• Always salt-cure beef tongue before cooking, then add an extra half-cup of salt at the end.
• If fresh lard is not available, use duck fat.
• Add pork ribs when making chicken stock for fuller flavor.
• Never, ever use canola oil because it is overprocessed. Also never use corn oil. Sunflower oil is acceptable.
• Capresso coffee grinders are superior at grinding spices.
• Toast sesame seeds, but do not toast pumpkin seeds when making a green mole.
• When using any dessert recipe, double the butter and halve the sugar.
• Spirited discussion and debate over breakfast is the best way to start the day; the earthquake on Friday was quite minor in comparison.

This view is from my back yard: wild turkeys looking for love in the floodwaters. We have had so much rain and the field is so muddy, that nothing has been planted. I’m afraid we will miss the spring crops (greens and peas) and go directly to the hot weather crops of tomatoes and basil.

…for well-loved knives in need of new handle or tip. Our superior knife sharpener now offers a new service of making brand-new handles for old, beloved but broken knives. If someone wrecked your knives in the dishwasher, we can save them. The handles can be made out of gorgeously-grained woods. Or, if you prefer, the knife handle can be made out of the original plastic material. Also, the knife sharpener can fix broken tips (if not broken hearts). Give new life to your knives by getting a super-sharp edge with our overnight service.

Knife sharpening is $3 a blade. Scissors and shears are $5 each. New tips are gratis. The price of new handles start at $15 each.

Jackie asks, “I planted garlic which I bought at your store last year and it’s about 8″ long — YEAH. What next and when — like when do I pull it out of the ground?”

For those of you who planted garlic last fall, the leaves should now be about a foot tall. But don’t pull it out of the ground yet. Let it grow, because underground it looks like a scallion. About May, the scape should appear, which is the seed pod. It will curly-q. Cut off the scape before it does the second curly-q. The head of garlic will get bigger if all of the energy goes into the root. Pull up and harvest the garlic heads the first week in July. Eat. Truly fresh garlic is delectable.

For those of you who did not plant garlic last fall, yes we will have homegrown garlic again to sell in July and August (if the garlic gods continue to smile on us). Then mark your calendar to plant garlic cloves in October so you can enjoy homegrown garlic next year! One clove will yield one head of garlic.

We have not yet planted anything else in our garden; it is too wet and muddy.