Phoodie.info: The New Food And Drink Blog For Philadelphia » Superfoods

Snowy Weekend Recipe: Sweet Potato Bread

kwinks — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:37:07 +0000

We had these sweet potatoes hanging around, and we were getting tired of roasting them! Even though roasted sweet potatoes are one of our favorite side dishes, we decided this time to make bread. This is an altered recipe of traditional banana bread from La Petite Brioche. You can get crazy with this if you want and put pecans or cranberries in it, but we wanted to keep it simple and let the beauty our favorite superfood shine through. This recipe is so simple!

The only thing we suggest is to roast your potatoes instead of boiling and mashing them. Roasting condenses the sugars and ensures you get ultimate natural sweetness. Give your potatoes a couple pricks with a fork, place them on a baking sheet and roast them for 45 minutes to an hour in a 400 degree oven. Once they cool off a bit the flesh of the potatoes should sink away from the skin and you should be able to peel the skin right off with your fingers. They’ll also be super moist which will lead to a very moist and delicious bread. You can place the roasted potato innards in a bowl and mash them with a fork, or throw them right into your mixer when the recipe calls.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup pecan pieces (optional)
1/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan. In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl or mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir eggs, vanilla, milk and mashed sweet potatoes into the butter and sugar mixture blend well. Stir sweet potato mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. If desired, top with pecan pieces and dried cranberries. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

When Will The Miracle Berry Come To Philadelphia? And Will You Please Please Please Invite Us To Your “Flavor Tripping Party?”

Rachael — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:38:04 +0000

Over the course of the last year, we’ve been hearing a lot about something called the Miracle Berry. The berry plant, which is native to Ghana, contains a certain kind of molecule called miraculin, which causes taste receptors to be bizarrely affected when the flesh of the fruit is eaten. Miraculin binds to the tastebuds and makes sour things taste sweet for as long as 15 minutes to an hour. The berry is legal according to the FDA, who have labeled it as an additive rather than a “drug”, but it has created a new trend of throwing “flavor tripping parties,” to which we say – are these happening in Philadelphia? Are people seriously throwing Miracle Berry Parties? And more importantly, why haven’t we been invited?

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka: Lighten-ing In A Bottle

tips — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:05:55 +0000

The need for a refreshing drink that will keep a zen-like smile on your face has long been sought after. And then, along came Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. The sweet tea transforms the vodka, like a party girl turned mom; here, the infusion of sweet tea lightens the heart of the hard liquor into a quite pleasant conversationalist. The summer delight is the brainchild of South Carolina Firefly distillery owners Jim Irvin and Scott Newitt. They have also added a few new members to the family — flavors spiked with raspberry, mint, peach and lemon. The naturally sugarcane-sweetened vodka is quite deceiving; at 70 proof, it will put hair on your tongue. Its recommended sidekick is lemonade, and you can find that concoction at the Octo Waterfront Grille. The southern charm is contagious and is a great way to simmer away these hot lazy days of July.

And Now, Zoe Lukas’ Amazing Jack Daniel’s Cake

DannyD — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:55:33 +0000

Zoe Lukas of Whipped Bakeshop has outdone herself again. After impressing us with her Obama cookies last year, we were blown away when we got a peek at her new Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Cake. The cake itself stands 18 inches tall. It’s chocolate-whiskey flavored and filled with caramel-whiskey buttercream. The whole thing is covered in meticulously-painted fondant. Best of all, the “wooden” base underneath the cake is actually made of sugar! Can someone tell us why this girl doesn’t have her own TV show along the lines of Ace of Cakes?

Tastykake Face-Off: The Battle Of The Brownies

tips — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:25:31 +0000

Welcome to the second installment of Tastykake Face-Off, where Philadelphia’s hometown hero snack product goes up against the competition in a fight for top snack bragging rights. The winner will be carefully selected via analysis of several key criteria discussed below. Today it’s the battle of the brownies, as Hershey’s takes on the venerable Tastykake Brownie. Let’s see how this matchup of Pennsylvania heavyweights goes down…

• Packaging: The Tastykake brownie comes snugly packed in a simple plastic wrapper. The Tastykake logo appears like a banner in the upper left-hand corner. Across the midsection is a clear band allowing shoppers to see the actual brownie inside. In the lower right-hand corner is a yellow section with the words “Fudge Nut Brownie” written in a fun-looking font. The Hershey’s brownie comes in a larger plastic wrapper in which the brownie loosely sits. Or rather, hangs. The Hershey’s packaging is designed with a hole in the top so that the brownie can hang from a bar, ensuring maximum visibility. Very clever, Hershey’s. The artwork on the package has what looks to be a Hershey’s chocolate bar at the top, the word “Brownie” in a sophisticated font below, and then an artist’s rendition of the actual brownie and some dancing chocolate chips against a swirly brown, tan, and yellow background. At the very bottom are the descriptions, “with Hershey’s Chocolate Chips” and “Topped with a Drizzle of Chocolate Icing.” The judges are going to give this round to the Tastykake. Their rationale: Brownies are a fun food for kids. The Hershey’s packaging is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s just too “adult.” The Tastykake keeps it simple and lets the brownie do the talking. Tastykake takes an early lead in this face-off.

• Price: The Tastykake seems reasonably priced at $1.39; that is, until you compare it to the bargain basement 99 cent price of the Hershey’s. When you’re reduced to rifling through your car ashtray for change to pay for your brownie fix, that 40 cents can make all the difference.

• Appearance: Thanks to the Tastykake’s viewing window in the wrapper, you mostly know what you’re getting: A thin layer of fudge with some embedded walnuts. You can’t see what’s below the top layer without tearing into the packaging, but it’s no surprise that a medium brown, moist, slightly crumbly brownie lurks beneath. The Hershey’s is a greater gamble, but it doesn’t stray far from the drawing on the cover (except for the dancing chocolate chips). The ribbon of icing looks precise, but the actual brownie looks dark and ultra-dense, giving the impression of dryness, sort of like a Clif Bar. Brownies aren’t supposed to be comparable to health food! Advantage: Tastykake.

• Taste: Despite the appearance of the Hershey’s brownie, its taste is quite good, almost like a truffle (the chocolate kind, not the mushroom kind). Yes, it’s quite dense, but it has a note of true cocoa. The icing has a strange, slightly gritty texture when being chewed though, almost like toothpaste. The Tastykake is firm, well balanced, and slightly sweeter than the Hershey’s. The walnuts provide a nice crunch, and the icing is smooth. The Hershey’s put up a decent fight, but we’re ruling in favor of the Tastykake on taste.

• Nutrition: The Hershey’s (3 ounces) is slightly más grande than the Tastykake (2.75 ounces), but beware: The nutrition information on the back of the Hershey’s says that the brownie is actually two servings. Sure, the Hershey’s is rich and dense, but making two servings out of it is just unrealistic. When recalculated as a single serving, we find that the Hershey’s exceeds the Tastykake in fat and saturated fat, but not in sugar. A whole Hershey’s brownie has 36% of your RDA of saturated fat, whereas the Tastykake has only 26%. In short, neither of these brownies is a health food, but as an occasional treat, they are about even. This final round is a draw.

Victory: Tastykake. The Hershey’s isn’t really a bad brownie, and if you have no other options available, there are worse ways to spend your money. Maybe because the Hershey’s brownie is a relatively new product, it needs more time to be perfected. Or maybe Hershey’s should just stick to what it does best and just make candy bars. Candy bars are great, but for a perfectly balanced, time-tested brownie, go for the Tastykake. You won’t regret it.

Previously: Tastykake Face-Off: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Pies

How To: Make Rainbow Cakes, ‘Cos Funfetti Ain’t Got Shit On This!

BrendanW — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:35:31 +0000

That’s not so say that funfetti doesn’t brighten up an otherwise rainy Monday gloomfest,\. but for heaven’s sake, we challenge you to find a more cheerful confection. The best part is that we have the recipe and we’re sharing it with you now. If we band together, Philadelphia, we can make this gray city a lil’ brighter just one cake at a time. It’s not that difficult, and just imagine the heartwarming memories that baking rainbow cakes with your bf/gf/child/roomie can provide; dabbing a lil’ cake batter on their nose just so, playful flour fights, or even mixing colorful cake batter a la Ghost. Ahem. Anyway, we dug around and this seems to be the best way to go about it. Be it from a box or scratch, the same concept applies, just try to keep the original batter as white as possible so the unnatural coloring is as radiant as possible.

You’re going to need a package of food coloring, cake in its batter form, a cake pan for every layer you intend to make and definitely an oven.

Decide which color you want as the base of that particular cake layer and dedicate around 2/3 of each layers’ batter to this. This will make for the trippiest-looking results.

From there, split the remaining batter into five other colors, making sure to dedicate extra batter for the bottoms of your other layers.

Dollop your base layer into the center of your cake pan in a kind of circular batter puddle. Pour the other colors into the center of the base puddle, making a kind of bulls-eye of concentric batter circles.

From here, bake it as you would any other boring single colored cake.

If you are going for a layer cake, (which you totally should since you’re going through all of that effort anyway) consider going in reverse order of your previous layer to maximize prettiness. The same concept can also be applied to cupcakes, minus the layers of course.

Be it for Spring, Easter, or coming out event, the extra effort that goes into a rainbow-cake-bake will be made up for in smiles (or food coloring induced seizures). And we’d be remiss if we didn’t hat-tip The Omnomicon and Nikkita here, for truly, they are the Tigris and Euphrates of Rainbow Cake knowledge.

Hey Mister Softee: Shut The Hell Up! Or, This Moment In Philly Ice Cream History

BrendanW — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:03:05 +0000

Jeez, it’s warm out and, in theory at least, it’s only going to get warmer. Soon we’ll hear the haunting (but mostly annoying) siren’s call of Mister Softee, which not only warns of an impending zombie-esque horde of children but on some sort of subliminal level, the song tells us that spring is here and it’s finally warm enough to indulge in ice cream without getting frostbite on the inside of our bodies. But who knew Philly is up to its gut in ice cream history?

Before Mister Softee became the largest franchiser of soft ice cream trucks, he was rolling around West Philly handing out green ice cream on St. Patricks day. (Suppose that explains the spelling…) Alas, Softee is not the only frozen confection to come up in our gritty city…

Jack and Jill is pretty much our Hall and Oates of novelty ice cream. The company was started by a sweet old man named Mickey Schwartz who sold ice cream out of a wooden box he carried over his soldier. Nowadays, Schwartz would most likely be investigated as some sort of predator, but that wasn’t to be his fate. The company soon created a vending machine division and quickly grew to the frozen novelty ice cream giant that we know and love today.

Let’s not forget Bassets. This Philadelphia based ice cream company has some serious roots. Bassets has was first sold on 5th and Market in 1885. Within ten years, they opened a stall at the Reading Terminal Market and set up production in the basement. Bassets has since expanded and it’s currently available all over the beautiful tri-state area.

So next time you’re reading a book (or doing whatever the hell it is you do) and that god awful ice cream anthem penetrates your blissful bubble of peace, remember that the little ditty is a part of our great city’s great junk food legacy.

La Bomba: Your Paella Is Not Paella Without It

tips — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:16:00 +0000

We were lucky enough to check out an advance press dinner on Tuesday for Valanni‘s upcoming Forks & Corks/Paella & Wine dinner the other night, which we’ll be telling you a little bit more about closer to the event. But we feel we’d be remiss if we didn’t tip you off to a hot little nugget of knowledge we gleaned from Chef R. Evan Turney, who travelled to Spain last year in search of the best paella recipes he could find. Two words: Bomba rice. Don’t make paella without it. Why? Bomba rice absorbs three times its volume in broth, which will advance the flavor and consistency to a degree where, well, once you’ve had bomba, you’ll never go back. And we are not going back. A cursory look at local grocery shelves, however, proves that bomba rice is not exactly an easy find in these parts. (Even Whole Foods came up dry.) So if you wanna do it right, Paella Grasshopper, you’re going to have to go online. Strangely, Amazon.com is the most direct, easy stop we found. So check it out. You might wanna hook up one of those real-deal paella pans while you’re at it.

Smells Like Recession Cuisine: Salt Pepper Ketchup Coming Soon

tips — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:45:19 +0000

We were cruisin’ around the ol’ YouTube, and we came across this, the trailer for Salt Pepper Ketchup, which bills itself as “the first Philadelphia Cart Cuisine Internet show!” Sweet! Coming Spring ’09.

No Christmas Eve Plans? Get Your Smelt On With The 7 Fishes

BenLevy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:08:16 +0000

For reasons other than the obvious fun-factor of saying “fishes,” The Feast of the Seven Fishes is definitely a good time. The Southern Italian Christmas Eve tradition involves a briny, wine-filled multi-course dinner free of meat or dairy but packed with Mediterranean delights. Small guys of the smelt and sardine variety abound, as do all sorts of shellfish. The numerological significance of the “7″ is a topic of contention, so hey, this meal even comes with its own dinner table conversation starter.

For those of you down with “the 7″ but not interested in going smelt shopping this weekend, various restaurants in the area are offering the feast this year. For $45, Chick’s Cafe and Wine Bar on South 7th (spoooooky!) is serving dishes including red snapper in mussel broth and tagliatelle with shrimp and scallops. Paradiso on East Passayunk has loads of plates to choose from in their $60 feast. Frito Misto, a classic basket of fried fish and shellfish is on the menu, which also offers spaghetti with white anchovies and golden raisins, stuffed calamari with peas, and Baccala, salted cod that is another “7 Fishes” superstar.

If you’re interested in crossing the bridge of your choosing into the land of Bruce and untaxed booze, loads of Jersey spots are doing Fishy Feasts as well. Blue2O in Burlington has a $40 menu including shellfish shooters in Cioppino broth and hot and cold baccala fritters. For $39 at Andreotti’s in Cherry Hill, Meyer Lemon seafood salad and Seafood Fra Diabolo are on the list.

Chick’s Cafe, (215-625-3700) 614 South 7th Street
Paradiso, (215-271-2066) 1627 East Passayunk
Blue2O, (856-662-0297 1906 Route 70 West, Cherry Hill
Andreotti’s, (856-795-CAFE) 1442 East Route 70, Cherry Hill