Texting service identifies eco-friendly fish
If you misplaced the sustainable seafood card you picked up at Shedd Aquarium, finding out whether farmed or wild salmon is more eco-friendly is just a phone call (sort of) away.
The marine conservation group Blue Ocean Institute has launched a cell phone-based service to send you text messages with the information you need to make smart seafood choices.
The next time you're at the seafood counter or in a restaurant and can't recall whether farmed catfish is managed in an environmentally sustainable fashion (it is), send a text message and within seconds you'll have the institute's take on it.
To use the texting service, send a message to 30644. In the message, type FISH, followed by the name of the seafood in question, such as tuna. The service covers more than 90 species, and suggests alternatives to options that pose environmental concerns.
Aside from any standard text-message fees by your cell phone service provider, the service is free.
The group also recently launched FishPhone (http://fishphone.org), a site formatted for Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs.
Leftovers to love: We still haven't had frost on the pumpkins and here I am writing about Thanksgiving leftovers already.
The Culinary Institute of America is challenging aspiring student-chefs to create restaurant-worthy dishes from leftover turkey and trimmings. The top plate can win up to $15,000 in scholarship money.
Applicants must submit a creative, original written recipe using day-after-Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. To be considered for the separate "People's Choice" award and a $5,000 scholarship, applicants must also submit VHS or DVD demonstrations as to how their recipes are prepared. The contest is open to prospective students who graduate high school no later than June 2008.
Creativity is encouraged, as recipes must not only impress the expert chef-instructors at The Culinary Institute of America, but they must also entertain millions of visitors to YouTube, where they will be posted for voting by consumers from coast to coast.
To be eligible to participate in the CIA's Top Turkey Scholarship Contest, students must graduate high school by June 30, 2008, and enroll in either The Culinary Institute of America bachelor's or associate degree programs in 2008. Entries must be received by Nov. 9. For details and to download an entry form, visit www.ciachef.edu/admissions/finaid/turkeycontest.asp.
Expensive tastes: Generally when I see truffles listed as an ingredient on a restaurant menu, I order the dish. Knowing the price tag for truffles, I figure the chef isn't going to shave them into a cut-rate dish and so far, that approach hasn't failed me.
As we head into truffle time, I'm not sure I'll spot truffles on many menus at all this season. Word out of New York is that the collapsing dollar coupled with the rising euro has led to record prices for prized white truffles. The black truffle market isn't faring much better, which makes me wonder if suburban restaurants will be willing to take the financial gamble on the gourmet treat.
Linguini sprinkled with truffles that listed for $125 at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City in 2006, for example, is likely to go for double that this fall. Now I love truffles, but I'm not sure I love them that much.
I'll have to curb my autumnal craving with the much-more-affordable truffle-infused oil. Pick up a bottle at a local gourmet food shop or order some online (www.amazon.com has some) and try it for yourself. Drizzle a tad -- seriously, you only need a little -- over mashed potatoes, focaccia, pasta or asparagus to impart robust, earthy notes to the dish. Then you'll understand what the fuss is all about.
Cookie contest crumbles: Due to circumstances beyond my control, the Daily Herald will not hold the Cookie and Candy Swap and Contest this year.
Don't think I'm going to leave you without any new cookie recipes this season. Baking Secrets columnist Annie Overboe is developing some special recipes that we'll publish in early December.
-- Deborah Pankey