Registering for the 2012 food styling and photography workshop in Dordogne, France

UPDATE: THE WORKSHOP SOLD OUT IN THE FIRST MINUTE WE OPENED REGISTRATION. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR WONDERFUL RESPONSE. WE ARE SO THANKFUL. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DID NOT MAKE IT THIS TIME, WE WILL PUT YOUR NAME ON A WAITING LIST. THANK YOU.


This is lots of hard work and love in the making and so finally...

Registration for our 2012 food styling and photography workshop is now open!

As a reminder, the 4-day workshop will be held in Beynac in the Perigord region of France during September 23 through 27. Class is limited to 8 students and the cost is $2,240/person (for a shared room) and $2,740/person (private room). You can read more details about the workshop here or read last year's workshop review posts here and here.


HOW TO REGISTER:

1. Send an email to stephmodogetaways@gmail.com indicating your intent to register for the workshop. Please include the following contact information: name, mailing address, email address, blog/professional website, and your preference for either a shared or private room.

2. If/when we are able to place you, you'll receive an email from us with a little paperwork for you to sign and return. After paperwork is completed, you'll receive an email from us confirming the good news (!!!). If you are not able to secure your spot at this time, we will be sure to add your contact information to a waiting list.

3. If you are able to secure a spot in this workshop, and receive an email from us indicating so, then we will pass along a PayPal address (for an e-check or standard payment) and information pertaining to sending a money order. A full payment, at this time, is required to secure your placement.

4. A detailed itinerary will be issued to the 8 participants via email within 2 weeks of registration.

Ready?

I know I am.

I cannot wait!!

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Days of Blood Oranges and Fennel

"This is the third day I have had this same salad" I thought to myself while I was segmenting blood oranges and slicing fennel. Then I looked over to my dining table and saw the four different bowls filled with citrus. Blood oranges, honeybells, tangelos, Valencias for juice in the morning, and a bag of Meyer lemons.

I smiled realizing that sight only happens for a few weeks every year. And how lucky we are to live here - in the land of citrus.



I am not sure if I shared this before, but Miren started school three days a week. It has been a relatively easy transition. She looks forward to the days where she gets to play with her friends and carry her owl lunch box into school, just like her older brother does.

"Purple orange!" she says as I am cutting slices of blood orange to put in her sack. Jon laughs. He finds her new vocabulary very amusing these days.

She is quite taken by the deep red tint, even purple as she described, of the oranges. She nibbles on some, then wipes her fingers on her shirt. Jon laughs again.



The days I am home alone I resort to my two favorite things to eat. Salad and risotto - both quick and filling.

And these days we have had lots of fennel and lots of blood oranges.

Aren't they the perfect match anyway?



The risotto is simple and very fresh with thin slices of roasted fennel and blood oranges for a sweet and sour combination. I ate it for lunch alone. Then Jon and Miren enjoyed it in their school lunch the following day. Still good judging from the empty containers they brought home.

And the salad...

Cooked black rice tossed together with blood oranges, shaved fennel, radishes, blanched yellow beans, green onions, and watercress. Yogurt, olive oil, juice of the blood oranges, salt, and pepper. That's it. No recipe. Simply tossed.

Well... what can I say. I ate it three days in a row.



Also, please remember that registration for our food styling and photography workshop in Dordogne, France opens this Thursday January 26th at 1pm EST (10am PST)!

Roasted Fennel and Blood Orange Risotto

serves 2 to 3

1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
3 to 4 cups (750 ml to 1 liter) vegetable broth
1 large shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 cup (200 g) arborio rice
1/4 cup (60 ml) dry white wine
2 small blood oranges, segmented (reserve the juice of the remaining pulp after segmenting)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400F (200C).

Toss together the fennel, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and salt in a baking pan. Bake for 15 minute or until golden and tender. Reserve.

Heat the vegetable broth over medium high heat and keep it warm.

Heat a medium cast-iron pan over medium high heat. Add the remaining olive oil, shallots, garlic, and fennel seeds. Cook for two minutes.

Add the rice and stir until all kernels are coated with the oil. Add the dry white wine and stir until alcohol is evaporated. Add 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the vegetable broth and keep stirring until all the liquid has been absorbed. Continue cooking the rice while stirring and adding 1/2 cup of broth at a time. Cook until the rice al dente. It will take about 20 minutes. Add the blood orange segments, the reserved juice, and roasted fennel. Cook for an additional minute.

Remove from heat and add the Parmesan. Stir and serve immediately.

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The brown butter, apple, and carrot muffins we couldn't stop eating

Many of you have been inquiring about the apple and carrot muffins I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago.

Some of you curious and impatient. Perhaps you were imagining how your kitchen will smell while they are baking?

I don't blame you. I know I am driven by smells.



It has been very busy around here lately. I cannot lie, at times I felt I couldn't even breath. Between copyediting, the holidays, children home from school, and side projects I have had very little time to create new recipes. I tested and retested many recipes from the book to make sure they were perfect. In fact, there were evenings that we had nothing to eat but desserts.

A kitchen counter full of desserts.

But I am happy to say that I am finished revising the manuscript and now it is back in the hands of my publisher. Thrilled about what is ahead and seeing it all come together.



So allow me to rewind a bit to a few weeks ago when I made a vegetable bollito misto and these brown butter, apple, and carrot muffins.

The multicolored carrots that had Miren mesmerized. She ate them raw as she stacked the colorful slices on top of each other.

We saved some for muffins. A recipe that I baked not only once but three times because they were that good.

Brown butter, hazelnuts, grated apples and carrots folded into a batter spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom.

Perfect in the morning with a cup of hot ginger and lemon tea.



Now I am excited to start cooking new recipes.

We will be strawberry picking this week and who knows what we will make with them. I know being out in the farm will ignite my curiosity and creativity.

Take a deep breath and be thankful for winter in Florida. Yes, I will.



Remember that registration for our September 2012 workshop in Dordogne, France will open next Thursday January 26th. Read more details in our save the date announcement.

Brown butter, apple, and carrot muffins

makes 12 muffins

10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter
1 cup (140 g) superfine brown rice flour
1/2 cup (50 g) hazelnut flour
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
1 1 /2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon grounc cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground caradamom
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup (70 g) light muscovado sugar
1/3 cup (80 ml) maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 small carrots, peeled and grated
1 medium Gala apple, peeled, cored, and grated

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium high heat until the solids start to turn brown and smells of roasted nuts. Set aside and cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the rest of dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown butter and remaining wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and whisk to combine. Fold in the grated carrot and apples.

Scoop the batter into baking cups and bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.

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Save the date: the 2012 Dordogne food styling and photography workshop

I have been waiting to tell you about this for quite some time and so finally, here we are...

Stephanie, Nadia, and I are happy to announce the 2012 food styling and photography workshop in Dordogne, France!

Last year's workshop was such an amazing experience. We have been overwhelmed with the positive response and emails from readers who wanted us to repeat it.



This is a hands-on workshop where we will learn about my philosophy on food styling and composition, how to tell a story through props, the basics of photography, and understanding and manipulating light, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Perigord region of France. There will be visits to local farmers’ markets, gardens, and the beautiful walnut groves the region is known for. It will be 4 days of cooking, tasting, styling, photographing, and visual storytelling. The workshop will take place from September 23-27, 2012, and be limited to just 8 people.



The workshop includes 4 days of cooking, styling and photographing food in a beautiful manoir nestled up against a stone cliff overlooking a lazy river. The cost is $2,240/person (for a shared room) and $2,740/person (private room) and covers 4 nights accommodations in a luxurious bed and breakfast, 4 gourmet breakfasts, 4 lunches, 1 dinner, transportation during workshop hours, 3 days of full instruction, and 1 day of sightseeing in the area.



We are happy to announce that registration will be open on Thursday, January 26th at 1 p.m. EST (10am PST). This is how registration will take place:

1. Right at 1:00 p.m. EST a post will go live indicating an email address where you'll need to send your intent to register. Please make sure you are online at this time if you are interested in attending this workshop as we are operating on a first-come-first-serve basis.

2. Once you hear back from us via email, you will be required to sign a liability form and return it to us via fax, email, etc.

3. Once payment is made and requested forms are signed, your spot will be secure. At this time you'll receive an email from us confirming the good news. If you are not able to secure your spot at this time, we will be sure to add your contact information to a waiting list.

4. A detailed itinerary will be issued to the 8 participants via email within 48 hours of registration.

Please know that our last workshop sold out in the first 10 minutes of opening registration, so if you are interested, please make sure to send us an email as quickly as possible.

You can read about our 2011 workshop on our students' blogs:

Jennifer wrote about it here, here, and here.

Kimberly wrote about here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Lorna wrote about it here, here, and here.

Olivia wrote about it here.

Romina wrote about it here, here, here, and here.

Sanda wrote about it here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Thank you and we hope to see you in France!

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The winter afternoon we spent at the citrus grove

I wanted this winter break to be special for the kids. Although I knew that I would spend much of the time working (I am in the middle of copyediting the manuscript), it was important to me to schedule activities that were both fun and educational. That is when it occurred to me that I should take them to visit a citrus grove. After all, we live in Florida, the land of citrus, no?

I thought of how excited Jon and Miren would be to pick some of their favorite fruit right of the tree and learn a bit more about where we live. I knew they would.

Then, my next question was... "where do we go?"



I didn't know where to begin my search. I asked around and searched on the internet. How hard could it be to find a citrus grove in the land of mail-order citrus gift-boxes. I called and called, but got nowhere. It seems things have really changed in the last few years in the citrus industry. After the devastating freezes they had in the mid 80s, many small growers lost most of their groves and since then, the industry has become much more industrialized.

"We don't allow people to walk the groves for liability reasons, but you can visit our packing house" is the answer I heard the most. "But we really want to see the trees and pick the fruit! Why would I want to see a packing facility?" is what I kept repeating.

I got no answers. Until the day I picked up a bag of organic oranges at Whole Foods.

I saw the name Uncle Matt's under a big sign that said "Local". Right then and there, I googled them on my phone. I was so excited to find an organic citrus grower not far from where we live. I sent them an email as soon as I got home to see if we could come visit and shortly I received an email back saying "It would be our pleasure!"

Just like that, we planned a trip to visit Uncle Matt's.



We decided to make a day trip out of it. Invited my friend Karen and Jon's best friend Daisy along for the ride. C. even took the day off from work to join us.

The kids were beaming. Cool, sunny winters-day.

When we arrived, the entire McLean clan who is the family behind Uncle Matt's greeted us. Benny McLean, the patriarch, comes from a long line of citrus-growing Floridians. Who else would have such great insight into citrus farming but him. Matt McLean, Benny's son and CEO of Uncle Matt's (the business was named after him) explained to us the genesis of it all and the importance of organic practices.

Annemarie and her daughters and nephew joined us as well. Daisy, Jon, and Miren were excited to find new friends and share the experience with them. The McLean children are used to being in the fields and working the land and that is very obvious. They are naturals.

Benny gave us a thorough explanation of how the citrus industry in Florida has evolved. He explained to us how they address the issues of winter freezes, insects, and disease under organic practices. He spoke about the trees' immune systems and then, just like that, I wanted to cry out of joy. Maybe because my own autoimmune disorders, anytime a doctor, farmer, or individual addresses the importance of strengthening our bodies ability to defend from disease, it gets to me. I get it. Benny's words resonated.

I loved learning about how wasps are used to fight disease and how wasps live on their property pollenating these tiny white flowers that in conventional farming would be considered weeds and immediately removed.

They have created a harmonious eco-system and we could sense it. There is peace at Uncle Matt's.



The fruit was outrageously sweet - candy-like and warm from the sun.

We all picked from the trees. The sweetest red navels, Hamlins, honeybells, pink grapefruit, gigantic pommelos, and lemons. The tangelos were still ripening and so were the Valencia oranges. They also grow avocados, blueberries, and peaches. We even spotted some blossoms on the peach trees.

Our kids and the McLean kids bonded over picking fruit.

Such a beautiful sight.



As we were walking around, my mind was spinning thinking about what I was going to make with all this beautiful fruit.

The first thing was a fresh salad. Don't we all crave citrus salads after all the holidays? I know I do.

Simple lobster and citrus salad with tarragon-oil dressing and spicy radishes.



We played at the farm until nightfall.

The kids were happy from a day in the sun -- in nature.

And I was completely inspired by passion and dedication from those who see beyond a mere business and create a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for their family and community.



Back at home, we have been enjoying fresh citrus every morning. A mix of red navel and honeybell is Jon's favorite. How could it not be right?

Just like candy.

Even though it is winter and yes, it finally got down to the 40s, I still craved sorbet. I made pommelo, hibiscus, and vanilla bean popsicles that we had outside under the sun. It felt good.

Also made vanilla and cardamom natillas with sliced of citrus and ladyfingers using all the leftovers from recipe testing.



So thank you Uncle Matt's and the McLean family for your time and generosity. We will never forget it.

And to all of you, happy 2012!



Pommelo, Hibiscus, and Vanilla Bean Sorbet

makes 10 pops

3 cups (750 ml) freshly-squeezed pommelo juice
1/2 cup (100 g) natural cane sugar
2 teaspoons dry hibiscus leaves
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice

In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup (250 ml) of pomelo juice, sugar, hibiscus, vanilla bean and seeds, and salt over medium high heat until it comes to a boil and sugar has dissolved. Remove pot from heat and let it steep for 10 minutes. Strain it through a fine sieve and let the syrup cool for 10 minutes.

Mix the pommelo syrup with the remaining pommelo juice and lemon juice. Stir and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Churn in your ice cream machine for a few minutes until it starts to freeze and thicken, but not fully frozen. Pour into the popsicle molds, insert a wooden stick, and freeze until solid.


Lobster and Citrus Salad

serves 4

1 (14-ounce or 400 g) lobster tail
1 medium pink grapefruit, peeled and segmented
1 medium hamlin or navel orange, peeled and segmented
1 medium red navel or blood orange, peeled and segmented
4 radishes, thinly sliced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup (15 g) watercress
2 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios
1/4 cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
1 tablespoon grapefruit juice
Salt and pepper
Microgreens

Cook the lobster in a pot of salted boiling water for 13 to 15 minutes. Remove and let it cool until you can handle it. Remove flesh from shell and cut into bite size pieces.

In a bowl toss together the lobster pieces, grapefruit, oranges, radishes, green onions, watercress and pistachios.

In a mortar and pestle, bruise the tarragon with a pinch of coarse salt. Slowly add the olive oil while stirring. Pour the oil over the salad, followed by the grapefruit juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Top with microgreens. Serve immediately while lobster is still warm.

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