Desert Sun 12/8/10 - Las Casuelas Terraza

Food & Drink
D2 | THE DESERT SUN | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010
PIE: Your creation can
be part of pie menu
Continued from D1
shakes. Guests choose the ice
cream, filling and crust, then
it all gets put in a blender
and whipped up with a bit
of half and half.
“You would think putting
pie crust in wouldn’t be
good,” Meding said. “But it
gives the shake just the right
flavor.”
But there’s still a space on
the menu for one more pie.
Norma’s is looking for some
creative local bakers to compete in its Pie Showdown on
Dec. 16.
The pies will be judged
by a panel that includes
Carter, Meding, Executive
Chef Aaron Burns and
Bob Bogard of the Palm
Springs Art Museum.
“We just wanted to involve
the locals and get them in on
the fun,” said Carter. “And if
their pie wins, it will be
added to the pie menu for a
year.”
◆◆◆
Banoffee Pie
1 fully baked graham
cracker crust
1 can toffee caramelsweetened condensed milk,
boiled on top of stove fully
submerged in water for 4
hours to make toffeecaramel flavored milk
3 to 4 ripe bananas
Fresh whipped cream
Shaved chocolate for garnish
Instructions: The day before making the pie, remove
the condensed milk can label, place in a pot completely
Norma’s pie
contest
What: Norma’s Pie
Showdown at The Parker
Palm Springs
When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 16
Where: The Parker Palm
Springs, 4200 E. Palm
Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
Cost: $10, benefits the Palm
Springs Art Museum
Details: The best pie makers
in the valley will compete for
the chance to have their
creation on the new Norma’s
At Night menu.
Information: (760)
321-4609;
theparkerpalmsprings.com
covered by water and bring
to a soft rolling boil. Continue boiling, adding hot water
to the pot to keep the can
fully covered for the
four-hour cooking time. Allow to cool overnight in the
unopened can.
(If you plan on making
more than one pie over the
next couple of days, boil all
the cans of condensed milk
you will need at one time
and keep unopened in the
refrigerator; allow to come
to room temperature before
using.)
Thinly slice the bananas
and arrange in a spiral pattern and fully cover the bottom crust with the bananas.
Add the toffee caramel and
spread evenly over the bananas. Top with another layer
of bananas and top with
whipped cream and sprinkle
with chocolate shavings.
TAMALE: Judge took a
scientific approach
Continued from D1
Tasty tamales
ture and taste.
Usually there are around
20 entries, but this year only
11 vendors brought their
culinary creations to the
judging area.
One volunteer paraded a
full tamale in front of us so
we could see the presentation while other volunteers
put a one-bite portion in
front of us to taste.
I checked the look of the
tamale, how it was wrapped
and tied, then I brought it to
my nose for a whiff before
eating it. One of the judging
categories was aroma, plus I
thought smelling it might
make the spectators watching
think I knew more than I
did about tamale judging –
kind of like wine.
I continued the process
(look, smell, eat) as the
Winners from last weekend’s
19th Annual Indio
International Tamale Festival:
■ Traditional Tamale by a
Commercial Vendor:
Jackalope Ranch
■ Gourmet Tamale by a
Commercial Vendor: Adobe
Grill
■ Best Overall Tamale:
Adobe Grill
tamales came one after another with almost no time
for a palate-cleansing drink
of water.
And before I could figure
out that it was guava in one
of the particularly unusual
tasting tamales, my work
was done.
This was my third year
judging, and each year my
process becomes more refined. I’m hoping I can return for a fourth.
COURTESY OF MURRAY'S CHEESE
Take a brie, then make it four or five times creamier and richer
and about 10 times more guilt-inducing and you’ve got d’Affinois,
a soft cow’s cheese from France.
GIFTS: Many regional
faves available online
Continued from D1
sell for $15 to $18.
painfully good treats, such as
compost cookies, which contain pretzels, potato chips, coffee grounds, oats, butterscotch,
chocolate chips and graham
crumbs.
Strange, of course. And
that’s the point. But so addictively delicious. Then there is
crack pie, which fills a toasted
oat crust with a gooey butter
filling made from sugar,
brown sugar, cream, egg yolks
and vanilla.
Until recently, you needed to
be in New York to get these
treats. But Chang has launched
an online shop — http://
momofukustore.com — from
which they can be ordered.
Cookies, including the compost variety, sell for $10 for a
tin of six. Pies sell for $44 per
10-inch pie.
Mayonnaise
Because nothing says happy
holidays like a big old jar of
mayo, right? No, seriously. Real foodies will dig this. Just as
every other food has gone artisanal, so has mayonnaise.
Check out the too cute Jme
offering from Jamie (get it?)
Oliver. Among a new line of
goodies he is launching in this
country is Marvellous Mayo, a
rich whipped spread made in
the United Kingdom from
free-range eggs, extra-virgin
olive oil and grapeseed oil. It is
rich and tangy without being
cloying. Jme Marvellous Mayo
is available for $14.95 for a
12.2-ounce jar from
http://www.williamssonoma.com.
d’Affinois cheese
Take a brie, then make it
four or five times creamier and
richer and about 10 times
more guilt-inducing. You’ve
This collection of intensely
got yourself d’Affinois, a soft
rich sweet treats comes from
cow’s cheese from France.
Dufflet Rosenberg, a Toronto
Produced by Fromagerie
pastry chef who has been
Guilloteau, d’Affinois has an
earning accolades for more
than 30 years. Her focus is on intense and smooth creamihand-crafted treats made from ness with a gentle sweetness
and it will rock your notion of
premium ingredients.
Rosenberg recently launched great cheese. It can be tossed
three lines of packaged goodies with pasta, baked onto a pizza,
— Chocolate Tumbles, Crack- or simply slathered onto a
baguette and drizzled with
les and Milk Chocolate
honey. It also is wonderful
Morsels. Each is available in
with fresh fruit.
three flavors and all are deliThis cheese is available at
cious, but the Tumbles, particmost cheese shops and online
ularly the pecan and cherry
from Murray’s Cheese —
brandy, are pretty fine.
Visit the company’s website, http://www.murrayscheese.com — which sells
http://www.
duffletsweets.com. The goodies it for $16.99 a pound.
Dufflet Small
Indulgences
FENWICK: Annual dish
anticipated by its fans
Continued from D1
Las Casuelas Terraza
And Terraza is a busy place.
They have a difficult balance to
maintain; the aim is to provide
Mexican-style fine dining, but
their numbers take them closer
to fast food outlets.
“Some restaurants, if they did
300 dinners a night they’d be
blown away,” Shay said. “For
us, 300 dinners we’d be falling
asleep!” A menu item as labor-intensive as the sweet corn
tamales keeps the whole staff
hopping.
They have to make two
batches a day to keep up with
the demand. And each new
batch has to be tested since the
corn grows gradually sweeter as
the season progresses. As the
flavor changes, chef Torres adjusts his proportions: the
pineapple he adds as a sweetener (never very much) lessens
gradually as the corn’s natural
sweetness intensifies. Torres
gave me an ear of the corn he
had just had roasted in the
kitchen to demonstrate how
sweet it was: the roasting had
caramelized the sugar in the
kernels and it was a delicious
sweet/savory combination.
“If you get your corn at the
farm you can do this yourself,”
222 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm
Springs; (760) 325-2794
he said, “but if you get it at a
supermarket it will have been
sitting in the back of a truck
and…”
The implication is clear. Local
and fresh is a different level of
produce altogether.
The restaurant has been
making the tamales for about
10 years and the demand has
continued to grow.
“We’ve built a reputation for
them,” Shay said. “People
come from out of town: I’ve
had people from Chicago say
they come in here for these.
One man came in and we had
run out — he was so disappointed!”
The staff hunted to see if
there were any left. “We found
a dozen and they made his
trip.”
Shay and Torres estimate that
the tamales will probably last
into late December (no guarantees), then they’ll be highlighting a winter specialty: their
Mexican hot chocolate. Rich
and full of flavor, it would be
easy to get addicted to that as
well.