by Paula D.
on January 10, 2022 1:22 pm in Recipes
My 10-year-old goddaughter for Christmas gifted me red serving baskets with adorable checkered liners. She knows red is my color and the theme of my kitchen decor. She’s so thoughtful! The baskets are the ones you’d see at a drive-in movie or old-school diner. I wanted to make food fitting for their use. Hamburgers, hotdogs, or French fries would work well. I went with my favorite out of the three, French fries.
I realized after looking up a few recipes that I’ve never made fries correctly. I learned you’re supposed to soak the potatoes to remove the starch and fry them twice. Once at a low temperature and then again on high heat. This technique is how you get that professional crispness. It didn’t take much more time and the outcome was worth the effort. Give this one a try!
Homemade French Fries
(1 large serving)
Ingredients:
5 large russet potatoes
Vegetable oil
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Directions:
- Peel and rinse the potatoes. Cut them into sticks by slicing the potato in 4 or 5 vertical pieces, and then cutting each piece into sticks.
- Place them in a bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak, for at least one hour or as long as overnight. The longer you soak, to remove the starch the crispier they will be.
- Drain off the water and lay the potatoes on paper towels. Pat dry.
- Heat a few inches of oil in a pot to 300 degrees F. Cook the potatoes until soft, 4 to 5 minutes per batch. They should not be brown at this point. Remove each batch and drain on dry paper towels.
- Once all the potatoes have been fried at 300 degrees F, turn up the heat until the oil reaches 400 degrees F. When the oil is hot, start frying the potatoes in batches again, cooking until the fries are golden and crisp. Remove the potatoes from the oil and drain on paper towels.
- Sprinkle it with sea salt and fresh pepper.
I came across an interesting fact about potatoes. Both yukon and sweet potatoes are root vegetables but they’re distantly related. Sweet potatoes are from the morning glory family. Yes, the flowers you see growing all over Rockaway through fences and just about everywhere else. Yukon potatoes are part of the nightshade group, which includes many familiar vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. If you’ve ever grown both, you’ll notice how different the flowers are, this is an indicator of their distant relation.
Follow mefor the day-to-day on Instagram: @theglorifiedtomato
by Paula D.
on December 30, 2021 10:06 am in Recipes
I worked at Marzullo’s Bakery on Long Island when I was 16 years old. Marzullo was one of those tough Italian types. I felt intimidated by him at that young age. But I respected him and learned a lot from Tony.
He was an incredible cook and baker. Sometimes he’d make us lunch in the back kitchen. I’ll never forget this linguine with clam sauce. It was absolutely, perfectly delicious. Other times Tony insisted that I test out foods and pastries he was experimenting with. You just didn’t say no to him. This kind of employer / employee relationship probably would not be accepted in today’s world!
Besides picking up cooking techniques from him, Marzullo taught me a lot about cleaning. Afterall, it was one of my main job responsibilities. And Italians like everything spotless. I have one memory in particular about cleaning that is very vivid. I had just started working there. I was mopping the floor before closing. Tony came from behind the counter with his arms flailing in the air screaming, “Gagootz, Gagootz!!!” There was a glaze of muddy water all over the floor and I couldn’t get it up. He grabbed the mop from me. I had never used one of those yellow mop buckets where it has that squeegee mechanism. With a scowl, he aggressively started mopping, showing me the correct way, while intermittently yelling things in Italian. I learned fast that day.
Gagootz, if you’re wondering, is Italian slang for “crazy in the head” or “squash for brains.”
I bring these memories up because the other day at Ciro’s Pastry Shop (415 Beach 129th St), I saw semolina bread and it reminded me of my time at Marzullo’s Bakery. Tony got his bread from his guy in Brooklyn but nonetheless, it was always fresh and delicious. My mother always made me bring a loaf home for dinner.
In Tony’s honor, I wanted to enjoy a loaf of semolina for its taste, in a simple way. I decided to make garlic bread. Fresh herbs and roasted garlic can take bread to another level. And what’s better than bread and butter? I think Tony would approve this recipe, give it a try!
Herb Buttered Garlic Bread
Ingredients:
1 loaf semolina bread
1 stick soften butter
Fresh basil, oregano and chives (or other preferred herbs)
1-2 large garlic bulbs
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Marinara sauce for dipping (optional)
Directions:
-
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the papery part off the garlic. Cut 1/4 inches of the tip off the garlic bulb. Rub the bulb with olive oil and enclose it in a piece of tinfoil, cut end up. If you’d like to roast several bulbs at once, use a muffin pan. It works so well! Don’t forget to cover the top with foil. Roast for 35-40 minutes. Let the carmelized garlic cool to the touch. Then gently remove the garlic cloves from the skin.
-
Chop the herbs. Slice the bread and liberally butter both sides of the semolina. Smear the roasted garlic on top of the butter. Add the chopped herbs, salt and pepper.
-
Carefully join the two halves of bread and enclose in tinfoil. Set the oven to 250 degrees and place the bread in for 25 min. Serve with a side of marinara!
by Paula D.
on December 30, 2021 9:44 am in Gifts
Little known fact, I’m obsessed with the classic sitcom Frasier. I’ve watched all 11 seasons at least five times. Honestly, I lost count. One episode that pops in my head often is called Selling Out (season 1, episode 9). Frasier signs with Bulldogs’s agent, the fierce Bebe Claser. She persuades him to accept commercial endorsements but Frasier, being Frasier, is confronted with an ethical issue. He doesn’t feel comfortable endorsing a product he hasn’t experienced and enjoyed. To deal with this conundrum, he tests out the advertiser’s products to determine if he will promote them on his radio program.
While my influencer status is smaller-scale compared to Dr. Frasier Crane, I feel similarly to his views on endorsement. All of the businesses, makers, or events I’ve written and advocated for over the years are people and products I truly believe in. And I feel it’s important to share that information with our community to assist our small businesses and push growth from within.
On that note, I’d like to introduce you to Omyst (OM). This product is an all natural, organic herbal first aid spray. Its healing and antibacterial properties are derived from 100% organically grown, ethically foraged plants: calendula, yarrow, plantain, and wild roses. The spray treats cuts, burns, bug bites, acne, rashes, sutures, scrapes, tattoo care and more.
Over the summer I had an incident. A bottle broke on the cement and a large piece of glass cut my leg. I had to get 10 stitches. It was a deep gash. My friend Meredith gave me her Omyst spray and said, “Trust me, it will work better than anything you can buy at the drugstore.” She was right. I used the spray three times a day. I never developed redness around the wound or swelling. And the healing process was fast. I also believe it helped with minimal scarring. I use it for any type of skin issue now and I still have the original bottle from the summer.
OM is mindfully developed by one of our own, Noreen Mulvanerty, a long-time Rockawayite. As a mother of five, and now grandmother, she has dealt with her share of cuts and scrapes! But her knowledge goes beyond beach horseplay and falls in the playground. Noreen is a retired Family Nurse Practitioner with a degree from Georgetown University. She continued her education and passion for holistic therapy at Columbia University, where she studied botanical medicine in modern clinical practice, earning a postgraduate certificate in Chinese Medicine and AMMATherapy. Her creds are legit!
Supporting our local vendors this holiday season and year-round is vital for Rockaway to continue prospering. Follow @omystfirstaid on Instagram to learn more about this healing product and visit omyst.com to purchase last minute Omyst gift packages and other items such as soaps, body creams, and lip balm. Omyst is the perfect gift for your accident prone friend, moms with little ones or any loved one, because we all need healing care from time to time!
Photos courtesy of @omystfirstaid
