Blue Cayenne

Cooks have long understood the impact of color on eating habits. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used herbs to color their foods and wines in an effort to enhance their appeal.

Instinctively, I think, most of us understand that color suggests flavor, ripeness, and sweetness. Certainly, at least for me, there is a heart-quickening anticipation of ripeness when I score a dark green/black avocado in my grocer’s bin or when I find bright red strawberries at the farmer’s market.

The opposite is true, too.  Color can be a turn-off. Researchers have found that there is a relatively negative reaction to foods not associated with the colors found in nature. For example, blue is an unappealing color for food for most people. Interestingly, some weight loss companies recommend curbing eating by serving food on blue plates, refrigerating food in blue containers, and dining in a room with blue lighting. I’m trying to picture myself rolling out of bed around midnight, stumbling into the kitchen and innocently opening the refrigerator only to turn away in disgust at the sight of chocolate eclairs in blue wrapping. Maybe not.

And, so, here is a colorful squash dish featuring kuri squash. It is just the thing to perk up your holiday table.

Who could resist kuri’s vibrant orange allure? Whatever you do, though, don’t serve it on a blue plate.

When an Irish girl tells you that a potato dish soars, you should listen.

This potato dish soars!

Potatoes should definitely be on your Thanksgiving table anyway. The potato carbohydrates will give you the energy you need to keep things on a mellow Norman Rockwell-esque keel if the conversation veers into politics.

This recipe is adapted from one that appears here.

In this season of everything pumpkin and maple, what better treat than Maple Baked Beans? Maple syrup is, after all, good in just about everything and the contrast of sweet and savory flavors in baked beans never gets old.

If you’ve been wondering about the origins of maple syrup as a food, it turns out that people have been eating maple syrup for a very long time. Historians tell us that the indigenous people of the northeastern sections of North America were enjoying the delights of maple syrup long before the Europeans arrived.

Today, maple syrup is a prized (and lucrative) product for producers in the Northeastern United States and in Canada, with Canada producing about 80% of the world’s output. In 2018, global sales of maple syrup topped $380 million dollars. That’s a whole lot of maple syrup!

Really good maple syrup can be pricey, though.

Part of the reason for the syrup’s high cost is the cost and difficulty of processing the sugary maple sap. The sap has to be boiled down to reduce the water content and to concentrate the sugars. The quantity of sap required is huge, too. It takes 10 gallons of sap to make one quart of maple syrup.

There is an additional reason for the high price you pay for maple syrup: The supply of 77% of the world’s maple syrup is controlled by a Canadian cartel.

You read that right. A cartel.

It’s the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers to be exact. Bloomberg News has called the organization “the OPEC of the maple syrup world.”

Apparently, things aren’t all sweetness and light in the maple sugar business either. It’s a cutthroat industry and there is a good deal of drama.

Case in point: In 2012, the Federation’s “strategic reserve” of maple syrup was hit by daring thieves who made off with about 250,000 gallons of syrup worth approximately $22 million. Newspapers called it “The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.” (Most of the syrup was recovered and some of the thieves were subsequently arrested and charged with “trafficking in stolen maple syrup.”)

Netflix did a documentary on the theft titled “Dirty Money.” Personally, I would have thought the Coen Brothers would have picked up the story by now. It is a story crying for a parody. Working title: “Sticky Fingers.”

This recipe for Maple Baked Beans is terrific. It is a perfect blend of maple syrup’s sweet notes with savory ingredients like grated onion, Dijon mustard and a hint of cayenne. Although it can be made with canned beans, make it with your best dried beans. It’s worthy of special treatment. My good friend Sarah gave me a bag of beautiful heirloom calypso beans from the Chili Smith Company and they served as a perfect base for this dish. Rancho Gordo beans would, of course, be  great beans to use here, too.

Here’s the recipe.

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in the cookbook Spilling The Beans available here.