Front Burner - NYTimes.com

To Prepare: Whole-Wheat Pasta and Its Cousins

Community Grains guarantees 100 percent whole grains in its nutty-tasting pastas, which are still delicate enough to seduce you into the whole-wheat pasta camp. The California company gets its various types of wheat directly from small growers there, and identifies the exact type of grains used in its products. In addition to pappardelle, fusilli, linguine and rigatoni, it also produces whole grain flours, an excellent coarse-grain cornmeal for polenta and an array of dried beans: Available at Fairway Markets and communitygrains.com.

To Drink: Blending the Philippines and Morocco in a Shake

The pale celadon color announces springtime, which is one reason to whip up a lightly sweetened Filipino avocado shake, the tagaytay, that is served at Jeepney, in the East Village. But I had another motive. During last year?s family trip to Morocco, we became hooked on an avocado and almond smoothie made at a pastry shop just off the main square in Marrakesh, but could not reproduce it at home. Now, using Jeepney?s recipe, I nailed it; the key was the ice. Put half an avocado, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 ounces coconut milk and 4 ounces whole milk in a blender with a cup of ice. Whirl and serve. For the Moroccan version, replace the two milks with almond milk. Either way, it?s cool velvet.

To Indulge: An Essence of Blond Chocolate

In his book ?Beard on Bread,? James Beard tells of accidentally turning his oven to broil instead of bake at first, a felicitous blunder that resulted in a fine loaf and a recipe that was a keeper. Incidents like this fuel kitchen legends. Recently, at the Valrhona chocolate school in France, the director, Fr?d?ric Bau, forgot that he had some white chocolate melting in a double boiler, and discovered it 10 hours later when its intense buttery aroma came wafting his way. The chocolate had taken on a golden color and a rich, toasty flavor. Valrhona has now introduced this blond chocolate as Dulcey, an alluring, satiny, golden bar. It?s 32 percent cocoa butter, plus sugar, milk powder, butter and lecithin. It melts easily, so pay attention: $7.99 for a 2.99-ounce bar, www.valrhona-chocolate.com.

To Read: French Deputies Represent Their Foods

France is divided into departments, and in ?French Country Cooking: Authentic Recipes From Every Region,? 95 are represented, along with another 9 scattered around the globe, including islands like Martinique in the Caribbean and R?union in the Indian Ocean. This cookbook is the English translation by Jeannette Seaver of one published in France in 2011. The recipes, many with personal stories and fetching four-color photos, were contributed by deputies from each constituency in the National Assembly. Hearty home-style flans, chowders, stews and bread puddings do not stint on the eggs, cream, butter and pork. There are a handful of restaurant dishes like a chicken in cream from La M?re Blanc and the famous salmon in sorrel sauce from Maison Troisgros, as well as two versions of lobster Amoricaine. (Go for the simpler one, from Finist?re in Brittany.) A wonderfully basic trout in butter assumes you have just caught the fish. Do your best. I came away from an immersion in some of the 180 recipes wondering why anyone would cook anything but French food. Occasionally, pan sizes are not indicated, but any reasonably accomplished cook can figure it out: Arcade Publishing (2012), $35.

To Study: When Manors Ruled on Long Island

In the 17th century, Sylvester Manor consisted of about 8,000 acres, covering all of Shelter Island, in Peconic and Gardiners Bays between the North and South Forks of Long Island. Today the 243 acres that remain of the Sylvester family estate have become a nonprofit organic teaching farm, mainly for young people, established in 2010 by Bennett Konesni, an 11th-generation descendant. The manor figured significantly in the infamous triangle trade involving slaves, sugar and rum, as the provisioning plantation for the family?s sugar estate on Barbados. ?Food was the dominant thread in the history of Sylvester Manor,? said Mr. Konesni, who has donated 10,000 documents from the manor to New York University. An exhibition of about 80 ? including Nathaniel Sylvester?s 1680 will ? opens Wednesday. ?Sylvester Manor: Land, Food and Power on a New York Plantation? will be on display, free, Mondays to Fridays through July 15 at the Fales Library of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library of New York University, 70 Washington Square South. Visits to the manor can also be arranged: sylvestermanor.org.

To Sip: A Vintage Lillet to Age Gracefully

Lillet, the classic French aperitif, has made a single-vintage product since the 1960s. Called R?serve Jean de Lillet, it?s released in France every now and then in small amounts when a superior crop in Bordeaux (where Lillet gets its grapes) warrants it. In a few weeks, 1,000 bottles of the 2009 R?serve will reach the United States. Priced at roughly $40 for 750 milliliters, they will be available in New York and San Francisco, but can be ordered nationally on the Web site of Astor Wines and Spirits. The R?serve uses white grapes from a single vineyard in the Sauternes region, and ages for 12 months in French oak barrels, unlike Lillet Blanc, a blend that ages 6 to 12 months in larger grand-cru vats. The result is darker, fuller and thicker, with a more intense note of orange and stone fruit. It also has aging potential, and is best drunk on its own, over ice, the better to savor its complexity: Astorwines.com.
? ROBERT SIMONSON

Source: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/front-burner-12/

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